Lindsey Nye gave her coach a “pleasant surprise” at Friday’s ISU Open by finishing second at the first home meet of the season for the ISU cross country teams.

The senior finished with a time of 19:32.52, behind only North Dakota State’s Kinsey Coles (19:20.84).

“I’m excited. It was a nice day, a good start to the season,” Nye said. “Our home course is pretty tough, so it was a good workout.”

“I need to work on my time, but like I said, this course is really strenuous. [My time] may not be comparable to other 5-K [courses because of the difficulty]. But it was a good start.”

ISU women’s head coach Dick Lee said he was pleased with the performance of the former transfer runner.

“It was the best race of her short career at ISU,” Lee said. “She struggled last year with health issues. She looked strong and stayed steady. She was running up with Coles most of the race.”

Lee said Nye made up a lot of ground on Kristy Feldman, who finished third, in the second half of the race.

“It was a surprise to me to see her come out of the first 2-K loop [where she was],” Lee said. “A pleasant surprise.”

Nye said the duration of the cross country season requires constant commitment.

“In cross country, with the season being so long, you have to be patient,” Nye said. “I have to work each week to week to improve my fitness. I thought our team started off really well. We know we have work to do. The best thing about our team is we’re willing to put in the work.”

“Early season, you always have kids that feel they did well and others that felt they should have done better. Krysta Metz and Jenny Mockler felt they could have run better. Lacey [Leinbaugh] had a solid race. I know that she’ll keep improving week by week.

Freshman Mackenzie Madison had a bad blister on her heel, Lee said.

“She felt she could have been running up with those kids,” Lee said. “She gutted her way through it, but it definitely affected her racing. So we hope to get her back healthy in the next week or so.”

Metz finished eighth (20:11.25), Mockler 13th (20:29.19), Leinbaugh 16th (20:37.3) and Madison 25th (21:54.64).

“It was a little confidence booster to finish as high as I did,” Metz said. “I’m definitely getting excited for the season.”

Metz said she can still improve.

“I want my time to come down as the season progresses,” Metz said. “It was kind of a feeling-out race. It was a good starting point. I’m getting back into the groove of racing.”

If the team sticks together during races, Metz said it would make it easier at meets.

“It’s easier to work together than to get passed by another group of girls,” she said.

For the men’s team, Kyle Rasmussen and Ryan French finished fourth and fifth with times of 26:42.43 and 26:43.81, respectively. John Dean placed 12th (27:12.5), Corey Ylinen 14th (27:17), Ryan Pence 17th (27:23.08) and Alfred Singoei finished 18th (27:24.86).

“I think Kyle and Ryan had a great race,” said head coach Corey Ihmels. “Both competed very well and they were our top two finishes. They competed well and did a really good job for us.”

For the overall team, Ihmels said he was a “little disappointed.”

“We had some guys that had nagging injuries that didn’t finish,” he said. “But we had a tough week of practice. I expected a few other guys to run a little better than they did, but it is what it is.

“We’ve got bigger fish to fry later in the season. So we’re not in a bad spot. We’ll move forward and hope to bounce back next at Wisconsin.”