A pair of familiar names led the 22nd-ranked Iowa State women’s cross country squad to the team championship of the Iowa State Memorial Classic Saturday at the Iowa State cross country course.

Jane Groves finished second in team scoring and Sydney Pounds finished fourth as the Cyclones outdistanced Minnesota, 34-48. Groves and Pounds have been the top two finishers in all four of Iowa State’s meets except the season-opening Northern Iowa Open.

Pounds won the individual title at Northern Iowa, while Groves did not compete.

Saturday’s victory gives Iowa State three first-place team finishes in the four meets they have competed in this season.

They did so on their home course, which will be the site of their next meet, the Big 12 Championships Nov. 2.

“I felt nice and strong, it puts me in good frame of mind for the … Big 12 (Conference Championships),” Groves said. “It was good practice for that because I felt good on the course.”

Iowa State had four of the top ten team point finishers. Sophomore Emily Martini came in fifth in the team scoring and true freshman Laurie Meythaler come in 10th.

“One of our goals is to have our top five packed in within 30 to 40 seconds of each other as we got to our bigger meets,” Iowa State Head Coach Dick Lee said.

Iowa State missed Lee’s goal by seven seconds, as Stacey Armstrong came in 13th in team scoring with a time of 19 minutes 4 seconds. Groves completed the course in 18:17.

Still, Lee said he was pleased with Armstrong’s performance.

“Stacey ran her best race of the season,” he said. “It was good to see her getting back up in that top group.”

Groves, a transfer from England running only her third race in the United States, finished second in team scoring to Minnesota’s Anna Gullingsrum.

Gullingsrum finished with a time of 17:58.

“Most of the time through the race I was trying to catch the people that were in front of me,” Groves said. “I just couldn’t hang on to that girl at the end.”

Saturday’s meet was run with temperatures in the 60’s and a slight wind.

“I enjoyed the race, it was a nice day for cross country,” Groves said. “It was bit breezy, but it got a lot cooler the past few days and it was nice cross country weather.”

Saturday’s victory comes on the heels of a first-place team finish for Iowa State at the Illinois Invitational Oct. 12.

Iowa State had five of the top eight place finishers at Illinois.

“We’ve been really coming together in the last two weeks,” Pounds said.

“(Saturday’s victory) gives us confidence going into the Big 12 meet.”