Men's Cross Country Finishes Fifth

Saturday, November 11

Minneapolis, Minn.

11:00 AM

Iowa State

NCAA Regional

11.11.2006 | Cross Country, Cross Country (M) OLD

By: A.P.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.?Iowa State sophomore Kiel Uhl led the Cyclones with a fourth-place finish at the 2006 Midwest Region Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. at the University of Minnesota Les Bolstad Golf Course on Saturday. The men's team finished fifth overall with 132 points.

Running the 10K with a time of 30:48.79, Uhl's performance advances him to the 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships on November 20 in Terre Haute, Ind. Sophomore Kevin Born and senior David Rotich finished 21st and 23rd, respectively, to round out the top 25 in the competition.

“I thought we had a chance to sneak in on a couple of teams and be third or fourth and obviously we didn't want Missouri (fourth place) to sneak in there and beat us,” men's head coach Corey Ihmels said. “It's just disappointing in the fact that third place was there for taking and we had a couple of guys who didn't run as well as they had all year. I think as a whole everyone was a little disappointed that we weren't able to kind of seize the day and be third or fourth. I think Kiel did a great job and Kevin Born's performance was huge today. He stepped up and ran great. Both those guys are sophomores and that's exciting for the future.”

Although the team did not automatically qualify for the NCAA championships with its fifth place finish, they may still receive a wild card bid to compete. The top two teams from each region automatically qualify, with nineteen additional teams selected for the championships. The selections will be made on Monday.

“We still have an outside chance to get to nationals,” Ihmels said. “We just have to wait and see how everything falls into place. It's just going to depend on what happens in other regions of the country. Last year they took five teams out of our region and hopefully they do that again. If we were fourth I'd feel a lot better than in fifth. One spot is huge. Hopefully we get a chance.”

Big 12 rivals Oklahoma State took the Midwest regional title with 72 points, with Kansas taking a close second with 88 points. Micah Vandenend, a senior from Iowa, took the individual title with a time of 30:40.14.