If there is one runner that can turn around a race gone bad, it’s Edward Kemboi.

The ISU men’s track and field team’s 4×800 race took a dangerous turn after Brandon Wheat went down with an apparent injury, finishing the opening leg of the relay hurt. Iowa State dropped to last in the race and appeared doomed for a poor finish.

Enter 800-meter champion Kemboi.

Kemboi anchored the race and pulled his team from the depths, racing to a sixth place finish out of the 15 teams with a 7:32.34 time. 

Despite Kemboi’s performance, the team can’t shake the feeling that it could’ve done better.

“It was disappointing,” said distance runner Jacob Aune. “We had higher expectations all around. It was just one of those days.”

This marks the first performance of the 4×800 relay this outdoor season, and it came at the Drake Relays no less, which is one of the biggest track and field stages in the country.

There were no expectations from the All-American — just pride.

“Before this race, I put out of my mind that we were going to win,” Kemboi said. “We came here just to compete. That’s all we came here to do is compete. And that’s what we did.”

After Wheat finished poorly because of the injury, the team knew immediately something was wrong.

“Quite honestly, [Brandon Wheat] is one of the toughest guys we have on the team,” Aune said. “He doesn’t know how to give anything but his best, so that’s how we knew something was wrong tonight — not mentally, but physically.”

The weather didn’t make it easy for Iowa State either. 

With rain coming down hard in the morning and lightening up as the day went on, it made for some tricky conditions for the runners. The officials attempted to dry off the track, but with a schedule as packed as the Drake Relays, the cleaning proved difficult. 

The rain came back about an hour before the 4×800.

“They told me it was going to rain, and I’m not a rain guy, so I said, ‘uh oh,'” Kemboi said. “I hoped that it would clear, but I saw that it was raining this morning.”

The other two relays that ran for Iowa State on a cold and rainy day in Des Moines — the 4×100 and 4×400 — both finished last in their events. The 4×100 team came in 25th and the 4×400 placed 28th. 

The 4×400 relay barely missed its personal record in the event, running a 3:16.99. It was just over .5 seconds slower than the record set in Tempe, Ariz. in March.

It was safe to say the runners were disappointed with the performance.

“Obviously, we came out and gave the most we could,” said Kris Brander, who ran the second leg of the event. “We didn’t get the results we were looking for, but that’s what happens in sports. Sometimes things just don’t go your way.”

The Cyclones will be back in action at the Drake Relays at 10 a.m. April 25.