Coming off an impressive performance at the ISU Open, the Iowa State men’s cross country team entered the Minnesota Invitational with hopes of establishing itself as a power to be reckoned with throughout the Midwest.

However, when the dust cleared after Saturday’s race, Coach Kevin Bourke could only scratch his head and wonder how his talented team had managed to place a disappointing 21st out of 28 teams.

“It was a disappointing finish to say the least,” Bourke said. “It was a bad meet for us and we just have to move forward and get ready for next week.”

If there was one bright spot that shone through Saturday’s disaster, it would have been the running of freshmen Mike Mwangong.

He covered the demanding 8K course in a time of 25:05 en route to a 21st place finish. This was tops among the ISU squad and also gave him the best finish of all freshmen entered in the meet.

The Kenya native is in his first year of collegiate competition, and the results he has posted so far are hopefully a sign of good things to come in the next four years.

Close behind Mwangong, co-captain Daniel Kinyua finished with a time of 25:20.

This was good enough to place him 33rd overall, though Bourke was hoping for a little better finish from the five-time All-American.

“I really thought that Daniel Kinyua would at least run with Mwangong, if not ahead of him,” Bourke said. “Daniel did have back problems, but I’m not sure those affected him during the race.”

Rounding out the top five finishers for the Cyclones were co-captain Matt Williams, 26:33 ,134th overall; John Sainna, 26:47, 150th overall, and Tait Steines, 27:17, 162nd overall.

Bourke knew that if his runners were going to have a successful afternoon, he would need balance and teamwork.

But with the second and third-place runners being separated by a staggering 101 places, Bourke did not get his wish.

“Our third, fourth and fifth guys just didn’t perform like they should have,” Bourke said.

“The entire team didn’t run like I had hoped, and we definitely have our work cut out for us preparing for the [ISU Memorial Invitational],” he said.

Meanwhile, Bourke has already turned the page on a poor showing and is looking ahead to when Iowa State hosts the invitational in two weeks.

The Memorial features a well balanced field of both Division I and Division II schools. McKendree College, an NAIA school, will be one of the favorites along with Illinois State, Arkansas Little Rock and the Cyclones.

Bourke will no doubt have his team poised and ready to compete well and put on a good show for the ISU fans.