The ISU men’s and women’s cross country teams relied on strong individual performances this weekend en route to placing second and third respectively at the Greensboro Cross County Invitational held in North Carolina. Women’s Coach Dick Lee had nothing but good things to say about the Cyclones’ stellar performance on Saturday. “This was a very good meet for the entire team,” praised Lee. “We battled 22nd ranked South Florida down to the wire and almost pulled it out at the end.” The University of South Florida won the women’s division finishing with 31 points while Iowa State was a close second with 37. Rounding out the top three was Clemson with a distant 78 points. Kelly Brinkman continued to shine for the Cyclone women placing first overall by covering the 5,000K course in a time of 17:25. Teammates Laurie Meythaler (18:07) and Jessica Huff (18:08) both cracked the top five overall finishers by placing third and fourth respectively. “I felt great about my race,” Meythaler said. “I started out conservative, but had a strong middle and end of the race which helped me place as high has I did.” Meythaler, senior, thought the top three finishers for the `Clones ran really well, but there could have been better times from some of the other ladies. “There were some runners who really didn’t compete as well as they could,” Meythaler said. “We also didn’t bring along a couple of our stronger runners who definitely could have helped.” Coach Lee and the women now turn their focus to Oct. 14th when the squad will play host to more than 60 teams at the ISU Memorial Classic. With this year’s NCAA championships being held in Ames, many of the country’s top teams will be making the journey to Iowa State in order to get a sneak peek at the course. Both Meythaler and Lee see this meet as a golden opportunity to solidify their standing on the stage of the nation’s elite teams. “We want to go out and show everyone that we have a solid team,” Meythaler said. “Almost everybody improved their times from our first meet, so we hope that continued improvement will be the theme again in two weeks.” The ISU men’s team also enjoyed an excellent showing this weekend placing third overall in a talented field. Coach Kevin Bourke was pleased with what he saw Saturday and knows he has his team heading in the right direction early in the season. “We really ran a solid race,” Bourke said. “Mike (Mwangong) did a great job, as well as Tait (Steines) and Peter (Hess). Mwangong paced the Cyclone harriers by placing fourth overall in a time of 25:31. Steines and Hess came in next for the `Clones covering the 8,000K course with commendable times of 26:00 and 26:11, respectively. Steines was very pleased with the way he ran and was pleased with the team’s performance. “It went pretty good for me, a lot better than some of last year’s races,” Steines said. “Everyone ran a little better than the last meet and competed well.” However, there are still some pressing concerns that need to be dealt with in order for the Cyclones be at full strength for the aforementioned ISU Memorial Classic. Daniel Kinyua is still being held out of competition thanks to a nagging achilles injury that has plagued him the better part of a year. Mwangong has also been battling a nasty case of bronchitis that has hampered his training the past couple of weeks. Bourke hopes these problems, along with other little things, will sort themselves out over the next two weeks of practice. “I should know a lot more about the state of my runners after this week of practice,” Bourke said. “A couple of the guys who ran sub-par in North Carolina will be looking to bounce back at the ISU Memorial.” Bourke sees this next meet as a chance for his runners to gain valuable experience both as a team and as individuals. He also hopes his squad can put forth a respectable showing and compete well with the 60 some teams that will be there. “If we finish in the upper half I will be very pleased.” Bourke said. “With 15 nationally ranked teams coming to town, we will have our work cut out for us.”