The No. 26 Iowa State women’s cross country team traveled to Minneapolis for the Roy Griak Invitational and finished the race in 8th place out of the 20 teams that competed Friday.

Here are the three big takeaways from the second event of the year.

Room for Improvement

Iowa State ended up finishing the 6000m race in 8th place with a score of 193 which is not ideal considering they were able to finish in 1st place at the last meet in Columbia, Missouri. 

Junior Madelynn Hill was the best Cyclone out of all the racers today finishing with a time of 21:18.8 and finishing 18th out of all the racers. Junior Dana Feyen finished not far behind Hill as she finished with a time of 21:23.3 and finished 22nd out of all the racers. 

There then was a drop-off as the next Cyclone to finish was junior Janette Schraft with a time of 21:49.9 she was able to finish 45th out of all the racers and it only continued to decline after that.

Looking at the positives

Although the Cyclones weren’t able to obtain first place, there were some positive takeaways after this meet. Junior Madelynn Hill and Junior Dana Feyen were able to stay within the top-20 racers throughout most of the race. This was especially good considering they were able to finish 1st and 2nd respectively at their last outing in Columbia, Missouri.

Moving Forward

The Cyclones get a break after this meet to improve upon their performance that occurred on Friday. Their next meet will be in Madison, Wisconsin, as they look to take first in the Nuttycombe Invitational on Oct. 14.