AMES — The Iowa State men’s and women’s cross country teams competed Friday in the second annual Cyclone Preview. The men’s team entered the season ranked No. 5 in the USTFCCCA rankings, and the women’s team ranked No. 30.

Women’s Recap

This was the first meet of the season and the first meet for Iowa State’s new women’s cross country coach, Cale Wallace.

“I’d say we probably met the expectation,” Wallace said. “Going into a meet like this, they had a race plan to go out as a group through the first 2000m, moved up afterward and now we get a 3-4 week block of training before the next race.”

Wallace was also impressed with the efforts shown by the freshmen on the team. He said that sometimes there is pressure with an athlete’s first race at the college level, yet the freshmen did a tremendous job of not succumbing to pressure.

The women’s team finished first overall with a total of 28 points. Second was Northern Iowa with 91 points and Drake finished third with 112 points.

Leading the way for the women’s team were junior Maelle Porcher, who won with a time of 16:58.8, redshirt junior Bella Heikes (2nd, 17:02.4) and redshirt junior Riley Beach (3rd, 17:08.7). Six of the next eight finishers were also Cyclones.

“We were really focused on mental execution and working as a team,” Beach said. “We followed the race plan well, and then when it started to get hard, I continued to talk positively to myself.”

One goal Beach has for the team at the next meet is to prove they are better than their preseason ranking. The team believes they’re better than 30th and cannot wait for the opportunity at the next meet to show everybody why.

Freshman Keelee Leitzen said that her biggest focus was putting no pressure on herself.

“All the older girls have been saying not to go out with expectations but to go out and have fun, race your first race, and see how it goes,” Leitzen said. “I didn’t want to put pressure on myself to do anything spectacular. I just wanted to see how my first race went, and I liked where I finished.”

Leitzen finished in 11th with a time of 17:34. One of her goals for the next meet is to stick with the pack, continue to have fun and see what she can do.

Men’s Recap

In the men’s 6K, head coach Jeremy Sudbury ran all but a handful of Iowa State runners as an opportunity to see who would rise to the challenge. That challenge was answered by four Cyclone sophomores finishing in the top five, including Devan Kipyego, who won with a time of 17:38.5 and Ryan Watts who narrowly finished second with a time of 17:39.

“Me and my coach talked before the race, knowing all the work done in the summer, I was like ‘Let’s just get up there, go to the top with Watts, and finish hard,’” Kipyego said.

Kipyego added that he always works to get better in practice. With the next meet essentially being a preview of nationals, they want to make a good impression for themselves, as they know it will be a fight all the way to the NCAA Championship meet Nov. 23.

The next meet for Iowa State will be the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Sep. 27, where some of the best teams in the nation will compete.