With one top runner out of competition due to flu and two runners battling sickness during the meet, Coach Dick Lee’s Cyclone women’s cross country team struggled to a 27th place finish at the NCAA Pre-meet last Saturday.

Stanford placed first in the field of 35 while fellow Big 12 conference powers Colorado and Kansas State finished 3rd and 5th, respectively.

Leading the way for the Cyclone women was Alienor Gilchrist, finishing in 91st place,followed by Andrea Crapisi, who was ISU’s top place-winner in the first three meets this season, placing 103rd.

“It is really good to run against a big field like that,” Gilchrist said, “but it is such a huge race with so many people that you lose your teammates and all sense of what place you are in.”

Lee said Jessica Huff, previously the team’s 5th runner, didn’t make the trip due to the flu. Emily Martini and Laurie Meythaler each competed despite not being at full strength due to flu symptoms.

Martini finished in 108th place, Meythaler in 184th and Kelly Brinkman in 195th. Rounding out the ISU runners was Laura Bahnson in 206th.

“It was one of those weekends where we probably would have been better off not racing,” he said. “In cross country everyone has to go hard all the time, there aren’t any breaks and we don’t have the depth to overcome this much sickness.”

The team echoed Lee’s sentiments and knows that in order to get back on track the first order of business is to get healthy.

“This week we are trying to make sure everyone gets healthy, not doing anything to strenuous so we can get back to full strength,” Crapisi said.

The Cyclones aren’t using sickness as an excuse, however, they know they still have a lot of work to do before the Big 12 conference championships on October 31.

“This past weekend definitely motivated me a lot,” Gilchrist said, “I’m not happy at where we finished.”

One bright spot from the weekend is the Cyclones will enter the conference championships as a dark horse, just where Lee said the team wants to be.

“It definitely takes pressure off of us,” Crapisi said, “we know that we are just going to come out strong and try to surprise people.”

Lee believes his team is entering the conference meet with a legitimate shot to finish 4th or 5th if the team is at full strength.

“We will definitely be going in as the hunter and not the hunted,” he said.