Don’t be surprised if Bill Bergan, former Iowa State men’s cross country head coach, appears a little nervous before the start of the Iowa State Memorial Classic cross country meet Saturday.

After all, it is the first home meet for Iowa State since Bergan retired following last season. The meet will be held at the ISU Cross Country Course starting with the women’s race at 10:30 a.m., followed by the men’s race at 11:15 a.m.

“Oh sure, Saturday’s meet is something I will be looking forward to,” Bergan said. “It will be exciting for me to see all the people I have worked with throughout the years.”

Bergan took over an Iowa State program in 1971 that had never qualified for the NCAA Tournament in the 43 years of its existence. Iowa State won two NCAA championships and took home 11 top-ten finishes in the 25 years that Bergan coached them.

“Winning conference and national championships are nice memories, but the memories that are most important to me are helping young people and all the friendships that were made over the years,” Bergan said.

The Iowa State women come into the meet ranked 22nd in the nation, the men are ranked 23rd.

The women have won two of the three meets they have competed in this season. Senior Sydney Pounds won the individual title at the Northern Iowa Open September 20, leading the Cyclones to a first-place team finish.

Jane Groves, a transfer from England, was the top place-finisher for Iowa State at last Saturday’s Illinois Invitational. Groves came in third, leading a Cyclone charge of five of the top eight finishers to take the team title.

“I am pretty confident about where we are, going into (Saturday’s) meet,” Iowa State women’s cross country Head Coach Dick Lee said. “I feel we are progressing to the level we need to be at this point of the season.”

The women will be competing with all their top runners except for sophomore Jana Peterson, who finished seventh at the Minnesota meet.

“We are holding Jana out of Saturday’s meet because of a slight foot injury,” Lee said. “However, she should be ready to go for the Big 12 meet [Nov. 2].”

The Iowa State men have gotten off to a much more rocky start, despite their current NCAA ranking. They finished ninth out of 19 teams at the Minnesota meet and third out of seven teams at Illinois.

Sophomore Kevin Farrow has been one of the more consistent runners for Iowa State this season. Farrow was the top-place finisher for the Cyclones at Minnesota, finishing sixth. He matched that with an 11th-place finish at Illinois.

Farrow sat out every meet except one last season due to injuries.

“I don’t think it would be fair to call Kevin’s early-season success a surprise, because we really didn’t get to see him run all that much last year,” Kevin Bourke, men’s cross country head coach, said, who was an assistant to Bergan last season. “We always knew he had a lot of talent, it was just a matter of getting him healthy and running.”

Senior Corey Ihmels, a two-time All-American, finished second at Illinois after failing to obtain a top-50 finish at Minnesota.

“I think the last meet really gave Corey a lot of confidence,” Bourke said.