Iowa State men’s cross country runner Corey Ihmels finally got the opportunity to run a major race injury-free at the Big 12 Conference Championships Saturday at the ISU cross country course.

Ihmels, a two-time All-American, said he liked the results. His sixth-place finish led the 23rd-ranked Cyclones to a third-place team placing, upsetting No. 14 Oklahoma State in the process.

“I’m happy with the way I ran,” Ihmels said. “I got that feeling back in my legs that I can contend with anybody. I’m finally getting to point to where I’ve been healthy for over a couple of months and I haven’t done that in over a year and a half.”

Ihmels was an All-American at the 1993 and 1994 NCAA meets. He failed to obtain All-American status last season after battling various injuries. His time for the five-mile course was 25 minutes 29 seconds.

Sophomore Kevin Farrow and junior Simeon Wright also obtained All-Big 12 designation for Iowa State. Farrow finished ninth at 25:39, and Wright finished 15th at 25:53. The top 15 individual place finishers are designated All-Big 12 status.

Third-ranked Colorado fought off the one-two punch of No. 11 Nebraska’s Jonah Kiptarus and Cleophas Boor to take first-place team honors. Kiptarus won the race with a time of 24:52, Boor came in second at 25:04.

Colorado finished with 66 points to 70 for second-place Nebraska. ISU finished with 95 points.

“I really underrated Iowa State; they are a very, very good team,” Colorado Coach Mark Wetmore said. “They’ll be a top ten ranked [team] by the end of the next rankings, I think.”

ISU had four runners place in the top 20. Saul Lempirikany Jr. finished 18th with a time of 25:59.

Still, ISU Coach Kevin Bourke was not particularly upbeat.

“We felt like we could have put four guys in the top ten, and it just didn’t happen today,” Bourke said.

Ihmels agreed. “We didn’t run as well as we would have liked, but running not as well as we would have liked, we still surprised a lot of people,” he said.

ISU’s next meet is the NCAA regionals at Peoria, Ill. Nov. 16. The top two teams from each regional automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships at Tucson, Ariz. “We’re looking forward to showing what we can do in two weeks,” Ihmels said.