Iowa State women’s cross country runner, Sydney Pounds, said she was not satisfied with how she ran at the Northern Iowa Invitational Friday at Cedar Falls.

She won the event by 24 seconds, leading the Cyclones to the team championship in their season-opening triangular meet with Drake and Northern Iowa.

“It was not my best race,” Pounds said Sunday. “I didn’t feel good racing Friday, but I’ll settle for a first-place finish anytime.”

Pounds ran the five-kilometer race in 18 minutes 5 seconds. She was 24 seconds better than second-place finisher, Cindra Schelling of Northern Iowa.

ISU won the team championship with 32 points. Drake was second with 38 and Northern Iowa was third at 55.

Two freshman running their first collegiate meets came up big for the Cyclones. Laurie Meythaler, a true freshman from Des Moines, finished fifth. Jennifer Crapisi, a redshirt freshman from Chippewa Falls, Wis., came in seventh.

“Laurie and Jennifer have really been practicing well,” ISU Coach Dick Lee said. “With young kids you don’t know if that will carry over to the meets, but they came through for us at Northern Iowa.”

Pounds said she took the lead for good at the 1,000-meter mark.

“After I broke away from everyone, the only thing I was thinking of was maintaining a good pace,” she said. “Many runners will not have a good finish after taking an early lead because they will lose their concentration and stop running hard.”

Meythaler said Pounds’ performance inspired her.

“I tried to relax before the meet, but I was pretty nervous,” she said. “But seeing Sydney run so well helped me calm down a little. After that, I ran a pretty good race.”

Pounds is ISU’s top returning runner after finishing third at the Big Eight meet last season. She also had ISU’s best showing at the NCAA meet, with a 58th-place finish.

“Sydney really dominated the race from the half-mile mark on,” Lee said. “I think she is definitely ahead of where she was last season at this point.”

ISU won the meet in dominating fashion, placing five runners in the first ten to reach the finish line. Amber Grady finished ninth and Kim Iverson came in 10th.

“You never argue with winning,” Lee said. “Our runners did everything that was expected of them.”

The next meet for the ISU women’s cross country team is the Minnesota Invitational at Minneapolis Saturday. The Minnesota meet will be the ISU men’s cross country team’s first meet of the season.