Besides facing cross country juggernaut Colorado, the men’s and women’s teams will compete against other top-flight schools at the “wide open” Big 12 Championships in Topeka, Kan., on Saturday.

Both the Colorado men’s and women’s teams are ranked third nationally this week.

The Buffaloes have won the conference meet for the men all eight years since the Big 12 was established in 1996 and the women have been conference champions every year except 1998, when Kansas State won.

“Colorado is head and shoulders above everyone else [in the conference],” men’s coach Corey Ihmels said. “Their program is at a level where they have sustained themselves for the past eight years.”

Ihmels will be competing with all nine of his runners, who have remained healthy throughout the season.

Senior runner Grant Shadden said the top half of the places will be determined by what team shows up.

“The Big 12 Conference is really competitive up front, and beyond the first couple of teams, it’s really wide open,” Shadden said.

Shadden said this year’s squad is focused on what its coach has been telling it and knows this is what he’s been waiting all year for.

“These are the ones we really want to get after and show people what we’re capable of,” he said.

Shadden said Ihmels has taken a different approach with him because of his injury history.

Training-wise, the coach had to figure out what Shadden could and could not handle.

“[Grant’s situation] is a different animal all in itself,” Ihmels said. “Now, I think he’s very fit, and I think he’ll have a great Big 12 meet if he lets his talent come out and performs at a high level.”

Shadden said Ihmels wanted him to focus on the conference and regional meets.

“I think I’ll be ready to compete at a pretty high level because of it,” Shadden said. “[Coach] has a method to his madness.”

Not only does the women’s team have to face third-ranked Colorado, but the Missouri Tigers come into the meet ranked ninth.

Even with these two teams, women’s coach Dick Lee said the conference may not necessarily have a lot of nationally top-ranked schools — but the conference has more depth than most.

“Oklahoma State is a good school, and they haven’t run their entire team together yet. Kansas State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech have gotten some votes [for rankings] the past few weeks,” Lee said. Lee said there are about eight schools running very solid, but Iowa State may not quite be at their levels.

“But you never know what will happen at the conference meet,” he said. “We’re looking [forward] to this meet and then regionals.”

This week, Lee wanted to make sure his runners got plenty of rest.

“[I wanted to make sure they’re] not burning the midnight oil,” he said. “We talked a bit about our racing strategy, but we don’t try to think about the race before we get there. We don’t try to add stress, we try to reduce it.”

The women’s 6K race begins at 10 a.m. and will be followed by the men’s 8K at 11 a.m.