The Iowa state women’s cross country team is preparing for their meet in Madison, Wisconsin, for the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Friday. The team is coming off their best finish, resulting in a second place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational.

The team is looking for another big meet for top runners, Cailie Logue and Annie Frisbie, who both had top 10 finishes in the Roy Griak Invitational. The goal of the team is to have the girls finish together.

The team is currently ranked No. 18 in the nation, with 170 points. The invitational is important for the team to move up the rankings, but face fierce competition with 33 teams competing, which half are ranked nationally. This will be the last meet before the Big 12 Championships.

The team’s goal is to win the Big 12 Championships, while growing every week. 

“The key for any tournament is make it to the end,” Frisbie said. “Since cross country is team based we want the whole team to finish in every tournament. That will be very important through the rest of the season.”

The team builds on each tournament and strives to make the next tournament better. That is the goal for this tournament — treat the last one as motivation for this one. The girls do not like to put pressure on each other. The key for the team is putting the pressure behind them and running together.

“We do not like to let the rankings affect us,” coach Andrea Grove-McDonough said. “Our goal is to keep building on each tournament and when we do that the rankings will speak for themselves.”