The ISU cross country teams completed their regular season schedule Friday evening with strong individual placings in their final home meet.

Drake, Graceland, Northern Iowa, Upper Iowa and Minnesota joined Iowa State in the ISU Memorial. No team scores were kept.

It was a successful meet for the men, as four Cyclones finished in the top 10.

“This meet gives us a positive peace of mind,” men’s coach Corey Ihmels said. “Our speed endurance is a good indicator that we are going in the right direction. Everyone ran and competed a lot better than last week. This meet should help us out a lot for the rest of the year.”

Senior Craig Cartier, who placed fourth overall, said the Cyclones needed a good meet before the postseason.

“It is a positive step in the right direction,” Cartier said. “The team needed this.”

Two Cyclone women finished in the top 10.

“We accomplished a lot,” women’s coach Dick Lee said. “Our goal was to improve from a week ago, which we did. Everyone ran a more competitive race, although some wanted [to run] better. But overall I am pleased with our effort.”

Senior Jessica Huff was impressive in her last meet in Ames, Lee said.

“Jessica was and should be excited about her run,” Lee said. “She finished ahead of two Minnesota runners that beat her last week.”

Huff said she was satisfied with Iowa State’s performance.

“We know this course, so it’s a confidence builder to run here,” Huff said.

Home meets are a favorite of the runners.

“It is nice to have friends and family here to cheer us on,” senior Karen McCormick said. “It is good for confidence.”

It was a somewhat different meet for the cross country teams. The competition was billed as a “speed meet” with both teams running only 4 kilometers. Normally, the men run 8 kilometers and the women run 6 kilometers at meets.

“It was a good short race which is really good for our confidence,” McCormick said. “It will also help us in the longer runs that are coming up.”

The shorter distance kept the ISU men running together, sophomore Kyle Rasmussen said.

“Everyone picked up the pace, ran a little harder since it was a speed race,” he said. “We ran as more of a group.”

The Cyclones’ next competition is the NCAA Pre-Nationals, on Oct. 18 in Cedar Falls. Members of both teams said the next few weeks are crucial to the season.

“We are real excited because we are getting to the meat and potatoes of our schedule,” Ihmels said. “The guys will continue to work hard which will help us out.”

Cartier said most of the work for the rest of the season will happen in practice.

“We are still training pretty hard,” Cartier said. “We are still trying to do the right things so we can run better and improve on our good momentum.”

Women runners also said they see things to work on in the next few weeks to get ready for Pre-Nationals.

“I see us getting closer as a team with more improvements,” Huff said. “I think we will [keep getting closer] and keep coming together.”

Even after Friday’s meet, the Cyclones still have speed work to do, McCormick said.

“We will keep working on speed,” she said. “We run as a group and try to make others run faster.”