The ISU men’s and women’s cross country teams have lost top runners from last season but hard work over the summer and new incoming talent should help to fill the gaps.

“We lost our No. 1 runner — Mike Mwangong finished sixth at the Big 12 Conference meet last year and ran at nationals,” men’s head coach Corey Ihmels said. “He was our top guy all last year.”

Ihmels said the men’s team also lost Peter Hess and Kristjan Hunter from its top five.

“[This] gave the guys high expectations over the summer,” Ihmels said. “There are some big spots to fill.”

Ihmels said his top returning runners will be Dan Taylor, Ryan Pence, Craig Cartier and Alfred Singoei. Dan Taylor could step up and lead the pack, Ihmels said.

“Singoei is a little banged up — he’s coming off a stress fracture,” Ihmels said.

“Dan has become a more efficient runner this summer. He could step into Mike’s shoes right away.”

Two other top returners are Ben Fogarty and Corey Ylinen.

“All those guys have done a fair amount of training over the summer and are in good shape,” Ihmels said. “They have been running 90 miles a week and could all make a contribution.”

Three of the top seven runners from last season will not be returning, Lee said, but NCAA Championship qualifier Jessica Huff will be returning to lead the ISU women.

Huff is in her final season of eligibility and will be joined at the front of the pack by returning teammates senior Monica Erickson and sophomore Karen McCormick.

“We hope to improve over last year,” Lee said. “We didn’t perform as well as we should have. Two of our top four runners were out most of the season due to injury.”

Erickson was one of those injured and had a medical redshirt for the 2002 season.

“She was one of our top four runners the previous year,” Lee said. “We hope to see her in the top five this year.”

New recruits for the women’s team include Meredith McKean from Estherville and Amanda Ganser from Sauk City, Wis.

“Meredith was a runner-up in the Wisconsin state [track] meet in the 1,500 meters and the 3,000 meters,” Lee said.

“We’re hoping that she and Amanda can step up and help out.”

Ricky Reusser, a recruit from Middleton, Wis., has a chance to be in the top seven on the men’s side, Ihmels said.

“He had a great summer at training and has made some huge improvements over last year,” Ihmels said. “As a freshman, he’ll have to learn how to handle the work load and stay in training, but he will help out for sure down the road.”

Preparations for the season

Taylor said many members of the men’s team stayed in Ames over the summer and trained together.

“We started out with speed and strength training in the beginning and we are in a mileage phase right now,” he said. “There’s no secret to distance running — you just have to put in the miles.”

Putting in the miles meant combining a 5:45 a.m. hill running practice with four other practices all in a 48-hour period. In addition, members of the men’s team were doing low-weight, high-repetition weightlifting two to three times per week.

“Three to four times a week we do drills, hurdles and flexibility training to build core muscles,” Ihmels said.

“Our mileage has really gone up this summer.

The women’s team was on their own while training this summer, Lee said.

“We hope to have them come in with a good summer of mileage,” he said. “Then we blend in more intense training, intervals next week, and look for improvement week to week.”

Lee said that unlike sports such as football or basketball where training is concentrated at a certain time, cross country practices are usually scattered throughout the day.

The men’s team practices in much the same way, Ihmels said.

“Being a part of the team is a full-time job,” he said. “It takes a lot of commitment.”

The men’s and women’s teams will start their seasons at the Bulldog Classic in Saydel on Saturday.

The meet is a dual between Drake and Iowa State. Women’s head coach Dick Lee said the meet will be more of a scrimmage for his team.

“We’ll have a minimum of five people there, but we are doing it as more of a training run,” he said. “It’s a meet, but it’s not a meet.”

Returning runner Dan Taylor said the men’s race would be a five-kilometer instead of the usual five-mile.

“This meet is an informal one,” he said. “It’s a tune-up for the season.”

Important meets are still down the road

For the cross country teams, the important meets of the season won’t occur until mid- and late October. The first major meet for the Cyclones will be the Pre-Nationals at Northern Iowa on Oct. 18 where they will face Big 12 competition.

“Teams plan differently,” Taylor said. “We don’t have any dual meets with conference teams and there are many that we won’t see until the end of the season.”

The Big 12 Championships will be held on Oct. 31, followed by the NCAA Regionals on Nov. 15.

The men’s and women’s teams finished fifth and 10th, respectively, at the conference meet last year. Both coaches hope to better those rankings this year.

“We made great strides finishing fifth,” Ihmels said. “I’m not going to be happy unless we improve on that. We have been in the top two or three in past years and we hope to work towards that.”

“To finish in the top six in the conference would be a great achievement,” Lee said. “Finishing in the top four or five at the regional meet would be a conservative goal.”

Taylor said he hopes to see the team succeed this year, especially at nationals.

“We made a major jump [in the conference] from 11th in 2001 to 5th and we’ll keep climbing,” he said.