The Cyclone men and women’s cross country teams legged their final race of the season in the NCAA Regional Championships last Saturday.

Neither Cyclone team qualified for the NCAA Championship meet and both left the bitter cold course disappointed with the morning’s results. The Cyclone women snagged eighth place of the 24 teams, while the men placed fourth of 21.

ISU’s Saul Lempirikany did finish third, gaining a spot in the NCAA Championships in North Carolina on Nov. 24.

Only the top two teams and top three runners who are not members of a qualifying team earn the opportunity to compete in the NCAAs.

The Cyclone men’s team was favored to qualify going into the competition, but several other teams were close in ability, leaving the national opportunities up for grabs.

Even though the men did not qualify, ISU Cyclone Coach Kevin Bourke said there is an outside chance the men’s team will be selected to go to the meet by wild-card draw. The team will find out by 3 p.m. today.

The weekend competition came to an unpredictable end. But when all was said and run, ISU’s team was not on the Carolina-bound list. Oklahoma State and Minnesota finished first and second to qualify for the national championship meet.

Battling blustery conditions, a pack of nearly ten men led an 145-man field. ISU’s Lempirikany, Farrow and Lichoro started and finished up front, but their high placings were not enough to secure a Cyclone seed.

But the team results were unknown until the end. In the final 800 meters, two Nebraska runners broke away to determine the individual performances.

Cornhusker freshman Jeroen Broekzitter wrapped up the 10K, as he cruised down the homestretch and into the chutes, clocking 32:38. His teammate, Cleophas Boor, finished four ished four seconds later to place second.

Chasing the Nebraska runners were ISU’s Saul Lempirikany and Kevin Farrow who clocked in at 32:47 and 32:50 respectively for third and fourth place. Cyclone David Lichoro finished ninth with a time of 33:06. Samuel Magu (34:04) and Tait Steines (34:22) were the fourth and fifth Cyclone runners nabbing 38th and 49th.

Bourke said, “We didn’t get started as aggressively as I would have liked. The cold was playing mind games with every runner. I am pleased that we were able to get three runners in the top ten.”

He said it was first time that anyone on the ISU team had endured race conditions comparable to Saturday. He said he believed that the climate really affected fourth runner Magu, a Kenyan who had never seen snow until a few weeks ago. Bourke said he expected Magu to place 20 positions higher, but that the “weather affected his concentration throughout the race.”

Lempirikany, also a Kenyan, said, “This was the first time I have run in those conditions. Having to wear more clothing than usual kind of wore me down throughout the race.”

Lempirikany will represent ISU at the meet along with the two Nebraska men from the region because they are the top three who are not part of a qualifying team.

Bourke said three individual wild card berths will be given out to runners who did not qualify individually or on a team and Farrow is pretty much assured of making the championships.

He said that both Cyclone runners also have a good chance to earn All-American status after competing in the NCAA meet. He is pleased that the two will be competing even though he will be disappointed if his team is not selected in the wild-card process.

As for the season, he said, “I really felt that we made some real progress from the start of the year up through conference. It was unfortunate that the weather played a role in how we performed.”

The Cyclone women’s eighth place finish was only four points out of fifth place. Missouri took the women’s title by finishing a trio of Tiger runners in the top ten. Running in the front group throughout the race, Tiger Erin Windler finished the 5K loop in 18:15. Nebraska finished second to qualify for nationals.

Even though she was a little under the weather, Amber Garrett led the women finishing 16th of 156 runners. She registered a time of 19:07. Stacey Armstrong finished 23 seconds later for the Cyclones and Erin Bresnan, Andrea Caprisi and Gayle Nugent.

Coach Dick Lee said a few women, namely Garrett, Caprisi and Armstrong had solid races while other runners did not. He said nobody really felt she ran a good race.

Armstrong, who had her strongest showing this season, said she wanted to do even better.

Lee said the finish was disappointing because they wanted a fifth place finish to prove that they were indeed a better team than their conference performance had shown.

But at the same time, he said, “We were only a handful of points from fifth, so I think they feel that we had a better effort as a team than we did two weeks ago.”

He said, “No matter how much you wearing you can’t wear enough clothes to stay warm and be able to run.”

He said some people handle the extreme conditions a little better than others, but that the weather affected race times as a whole.

Mickey Skidmore said the team did not plan on qualifying, but everyone thought the team had a shot in the dark.

Armstrong said the team did not have its best performance which was due in part to illnesses that have plagued the team. She agreed that the women were not planning to go to nationals but tried to anyway.

“We still didn’t give up our chances, we still tried out best to qualify, but it wasn’t enough,” she said.

Armstrong said the season has been up and down with injury and illness, but the team is still young and positive things can happen in the years to come.

“The sophomores and freshman can learn from it and hopefully build a good team for next year,” she said.