Andrea Grove-McDonough already knows her top-five runners for the weekend despite haven’t seeing any of them run in competition this year.

But as of Wednesday, she didn’t know even know everyone racing in Friday’s Oz Memorial in Falcon Heights, Minn.

“Most coaches tend to kind of have their stuff set and stone, but sometimes I’m kind of last minute,” Grove-McDonough said.

The team’s top-five runners will stay home, while a group similar to the one that ran last weekend in the Hawkeye Early Bird Invitational expects to run again this weekend.

The Oz Memorial is another low-key meet for the team and will give many of the runners outside the top five an opportunity to show their coach what they’re capable of.

“One thing that coach McDonough preaches to us is that if you’re seventh person is working hard and being the best they can be, then that means that the sixth person has to just be even better and that means the fifth person has to be even better,” said redshirt junior Maddie Nagle.

Nagle finished 14th overall for the Cyclones at the Hawkeye Early Bird Invitational. 

Iowa State will have a two-week break between competitions after the Oz Memorial as many of the team’s best runners will prepare for their season debuts.

“The only thing that gets a little complicated right now is because our schedule is a little unusual, and I’m trying to make sure the kids that I anticipate racing further down the line aren’t over raced by [November],” Grove-McDonough said. “Yet, I don’t really know that until I see them race.”

Grove-McDonough said she isn’t worried about those runners starting later in the season because they are fit.

“All of it is trying to figure out what’s best for the team come November,” Grove-McDonough said. “Sometimes it’s a little bit harder to tell early on. I’m trying to balance who’s going to run where.”