Fresh off of two weeks of strictly training since the Wisconsin Invitational, the ISU men’s cross country team will attempt to maximize its performance at the Big 12 Championships.

Iowa State enters the Big 12 Championships with some momentum after cracking the top-30 in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association final regular season poll.

The Cyclones will compete against a much smaller field than they saw at the Roy Griak Invitational and Wisconsin Adidas Invitational.

“Conference becomes much more close-knit, so every position counts,” ISU assistant coach Jeremy Sudbury said. “For us going in, we’re trying to match up with other teams and pair off with each team’s different runner. It’s going to be much more of a match race and the teams’ scores are going to be really tight.”

The team expects to use a similar strategy to the one that helped them earn a second-place finish at last year’s event.

“At Big 12’s, it’s all about the team,” said redshirt junior Tyler Jermann. “What we found successful last year was using a pack strategy and it worked out well. We’re going to try and employ some of those same dynamics this year.”

Sudbury said that while the Griak and Wisconsin Invitationals have helped prepare the team for the postseason, the Big 12 Championship is when performance really begins to matter.

Expected starters for the Cyclones, include seniors Martin Coolidge and Edward Kemboi, graduate student Brain Biekert, redshirt juniors Tyler Jermann, and Brian Llamas, and freshmen Josef Andrews and Dan Curts.

“Going into the Big 12’s, our focus is to maximize our team performance, and ultimately that should translate into a good day for us position-wise.”

Sudbury believes that the team’s consistent training over the past couple of weeks should allow his runners to maximize their performances.

After falling short of qualifying for the NCAA Championships a year ago, the focus of this year’s team is to join the women’s team in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 23 and compete in their first National Championships since 2009.

Sudbury said he hopes the team can finish inside the top-two to top-four at the Big 12 Championships, but said he is more focused on how the team can continue building for the later stages of the season.

“Conference is that first weekend when it really counts,” Sudbury said. “We’ve been telling the guys this week to get really focused, lets know what we need to work on, let’s have a solid race plan and be able to evolve through the race and really finish hard.”

The men’s race begins at 11:00 a.m. on Nov. 1 in Lawrence, Kan.