The ISU women’s cross-country team is the No. 1 team in the nation, but it isn’t quite ready to flex its muscles. 

Iowa State will travel to Iowa City on Friday to compete in the Hawkeye Early Bird Invitational but won’t send any of its top five runners. 

The meet will feature a 3K run for the women and will give ISU coach Andrea Grove-McDonough the opportunity to test more of her sprinter-like runners. 

“We got a lot of pieces of the puzzle that still have to come into focus,” Grove-McDonough said. “It’s a tough year because there’s a lot of great teams out there. But I mean we’re one of them. [We’ll] see what happens.” 

With the Oz Memorial meet just a week away in Falcon Heights, Minn., Grove-McDonough is playing it safe as far as who she runs and how often each runner competes. 

“It’s kind of a tough schedule this year, even though I set it up,” Grove-McDonough said. “We got another race next weekend, so we’re trying to kind of make sure people aren’t running too much.”

One of those out-of-focus pieces is the team’s best runner, Crystal Nelson, who spent last year’s track seasons dealing with a knee injury. Grove-McDonough said she is waiting to see how Nelson progresses before deciding whether to redshirt her this cross-country season. 

Regardless if Nelson runs this year, she has high goals for her team. 

“For the team, I want to see us on the podium again, but there’s so many good teams out there,” Nelson said.