The Arkansas men’s cross country team came to Ames seeking revenge and redemption. The Providence women’s cross country team came to Ames seeking a first for their school.

Both squads came away with what they were looking for by taking their team titles at the NCAA Cross Country Championships held at the ISU course on Nov. 20.

The victory was especially sweet for the Providence women. It was the school’s first NCAA championship in any sport.

“I think the key to the race for us was we got out very well at the start, got in control of our running in the first mile and got to where we wanted to be,” said Providence head coach Ray Treacy. “This is our first ever NCAA title in any sport, so this is very exciting.”

The Iowa State women finished 20th at the meet. This was the women’s first Top-20 finish since 1990, but some of the Cyclone runners were not satisfied with their team’s performance.

“The other runners on the squad are a little disappointed right now, but I think we did better than we thought we would” said Sydney Pounds, ISU’s top finisher at 58th.

Freshman Jana Peterson was the next Cyclone finisher at 94th, followed by Stacey Armstrong at 100th, Emily Martini at 150th, Kim Elrod at 160th, Amber Grady at 165th and Mickey Skidmore at 176th.

“Overall the kids felt they could do better, but we are pleased with our Top-20 finish,” said Dick Lee, ISU women’s head coach.

Lee said he considered the entire season a success, especially qualifying such a young team to the nationals. But he said the team could have had more success at the national meet if they had more experience.

“During the season we talked so much about doing the things it took to get to nationals, we just didn’t talk about what we were going to do if we qualified for the national meet,” Lee said.

The Arkansas men’s team went into the meeting looking to exact some revenge on the host ISU squad. The Cyclones ran away with last season’s NCAA team title, upsetting the heavily-favored Razorbacks, at Arkansas’s home course.

Arkansas swept the team and individual top honors with Godfrey Siamusiye’s stunning performance. Siamusiye beat second-place finisher Mark Carroll, of Providence, by more than 36 seconds.

“Looking at all the runners, I thought I was one of the few distance runners,” Siamusiye said. “I felt I could run away from anyone.”

Siamusiye said he came into the meet with a strategy of speeding up his pace every two and a half minutes of the race.

“No one could stay with me unless they trained the way I did,” Siamusiye said.

The ISU men’s team finished in the somewhat disappointing place of 18th. The Cyclones came into the season with high hopes of repeating as national champions, but injuries and illnesses threw a monkey wrench into their plans. Three of ISU’s top runners, Saul Patla, Simon O’Connor and Kevin Farrow, missed the meet due to various injuries and illnesses.

Dmitry Drozdov was ISU’s top finisher at 21st, followed by Simeon Wright at 93rd, Corey Ihmels at 147th, Jonathan Estabrook at 149th, Matt Thomas at 163rd and Jeremy Meyer at 172nd.

“Overall the meet went rather well, except for my team’s performance,” said Bill Bergan, ISU men’s coach. “I think most of the coaches and athletes had great praise for the course. Everything from a management perspective went off like clockwork. Everyone was asking me when we were going to host the nationals again.”