WATERLOO — The ISU men’s and women’s cross country teams have had many days better than Saturday.

In fact, Saturday might have been the very worst.

The Cyclones are hoping their performance in the NCAA Pre-Meet at the Warren Memorial Golf Course in Waterloo wasn’t a preview of November’s NCAA Championships.

“It hurt having our top runners, Jessica Huff and Monica Erickson, not running due to sickness,” said women’s coach Dick Lee. “That put a lot more pressure on us. It was like losing your whole starting lineup on the basketball or football teams.”

The men’s team simply failed to perform, said head coach Corey Ihmels.

“We didn’t run well at all,” Ihmels said. “It was very disappointing. Although, Chris Francois did a good job. Considering his starting point and where we ended up, he did a good job.”

Francois, a senior, said the team had a bad day, but that it sometimes happens in cross country.

“I ran pretty good for my first eight [kilometer] run of the season, although there is still need for improvement,” Francois said. “As a team, it didn’t turn out the way we were hoping.”

Lee said most of the Cyclone women have been having problems with consistency. He said the team struggled with the last 1,000 meters of the race.

“Jenny Mockler ran a good first [kilometer], but struggled on the last,” Lee said. “Krysta Metz ran her best of the season, although she had some trouble with consistency — good first part of the run and good last part, but had a tough middle part of the run. Karen McCormick has really been improving.”

Metz, a sophomore, said she felt pretty good and her muscles felt loose during the race.

“I probably could’ve pushed myself more in the middle,” Metz said. “We did all right [as a team] because there were a lot of high caliber teams here.”

With the season coming closer to an end, the coaches and the runners said they see a need for a lot of improvement. Iowa State is also looking forward to the Big 12 Championships Oct. 31 and the NCAA Regionals Nov. 15.

Lee said the key to getting ready for the championships is to start getting healthy. Metz agreed.

“There is another month left so we need to improve our training this month,” Metz said. “[Training] will help prepare us for the championships and Regionals coming up.”

Francois said he is confident the team will perform the way it has to in upcoming meets.

“We are better than this,” Francois said. “We will show our true ability in the weeks to come. We want to finish in the top five in the Big 12, and we will.”

Ihmels said the men’s team has a long road ahead of it.

“We need to improve a lot,” Ihmels said. “We didn’t fare well at this race, but we hope for a better performance in the Big 12 [Championships].”