Marial, Uhl lead Men to Third

AMES, Iowa ? Guor Marial and Kiel Uhl led the way for the Cyclones Saturday at the 2008 Big 12 Cross Country Championships, finishing sixth and seventh, respectively in the 8,000-meter race. Marial's time of 24:15.4 was only ten seconds out of a top-five finish while Uhl posted a 24:20.8. Freshman Meaghan Nelson crossed the finish line first for the women, placing 33rd with a time of 22:13.1 in the women's 6,000-meter race. The Cyclone men's team score of 67 points was good enough for a third place finish, one point behind 12-time defending league champions, Colorado. The women's 225 points gave the Cyclones ninth.

Big 12 Leaderboard
	Men's Standings			Women's Standings
Place	Team	Pts.	Place	Team	Points
1	Oklahoma State	26	1	Texas Tech	44
2	Colorado	66	2	Baylor	71
3	Iowa State	67	3	Nebraska	102
4	Texas A&M	95	4	Texas	117
5	Missouri	155	5	Colorado	145
6	Texas	179	6	Kansas State	158
7	Nebraska	200	7	Oklahoma State	168
8	Kansas	208	8	Kansas	203
9	Texas Tech	255	9	Iowa State	225
10	Baylor	297	10	Oklahoma	229
11	Kansas State	355	11	Texas A&M	242
12	Oklahoma	365	12	Missouri	284

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"We ran man-to-man with Colorado, and I think the guys competed really hard," head coach Corey Ihmels said. "We worked hard as a team, and we're looking forward to the future. Hopefully we can keep moving up in the ranks"

Sophomore Hillary Bor was third for the Cyclones (24:39.8), good enough for an 11th-place individual finish. Rounding out the top five finishers for Iowa State were freshman Rico Loy and Joel Limo. The freshman duo finished 21st and 22nd respectively, both finishing in 25:05.9.

"I'm a little disappointed our men ended up third behind Colorado and Oklahoma State," Ihmels said. "Oklahoma State looked really good today. (The Cowboys) have (a) top-three ranking in the country."

Freshmen led the way for the ISU women. Freshman Dani Stack finished second for the Cyclones with a time of 22:15.1, a mere two seconds behind Nelson.

"I thought the women competed really hard," Ihmels said. "Obviously, our first two were true freshman. They were running the Iowa High School state meet at this time last year so to step in here on this big stage and do as well as they did is tremendous."

Junior Paige Ties finished third for the Cyclones in 22:27. Junior Anna Florzak, who also plays guard on the ISU women's basketball squad, finished in 22:30.2, posting a top-50 finish in her Big 12 debut.

"Our third was a little farther back than we thought and our fifth was a little farther back than we thought," Ihmels said. "We can add in Grace (Kemmey) and Lisa (Koll) next year, they were all-Americans, and hopefully be top three in the conference."

Texas Tech's Sally Kipyego dominated the field with a time of 19:45.0, shattering the ISU Cross Country Course record by 45 seconds set by Kara Garagas-Wheeler in 2000 at the NCAA Championships. With Saturday's win, Kipyego is the only woman to win three career Big 12 Cross Coutnry Championships. Kipyego finished 51 seconds ahead of teammate Lillian Badaru, who received the newcomer of the year award.

Oklahoma State ran away with the men's team title (26 points), having four of its runners finish in the top five. The Cowboys' German Fernandez took first with a time of 23:47.4, and also received the newcomer of the year award.

The Iowa State Cross Country teams will next travel to Stillwater, Okla. for the NCAA Regional on November 15. The Cyclone's last meet of the season will be the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. on November 24.

Iowa State Men Individual Finishers:
1. Guor Marial, 24:15.3; 2. Kiel Uhl, 24:20.7; 3. Hillary Bor, 24:39.7; 4. Rico Loy, 25:05.8; 5. Joel Limo, 25:05.8; 6. Yonas Mebrahtu, 25:20.0; 7. Clayton Carper, 25:22.8.

Iowa State Women Individual Finishers:

1. Meaghan Nelson, 22:13.05; 2. Dani Stack, 22:15.05; 3. Paige Ties, 22:27.00; 4. Anna Florzak, 22:30.15; 5. Rachel Bell, 23:04.35; 6. Kellie Oettle, 23:16.00; 7. Brittany Rover, 23:18.65.

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Players Mentioned

Rachel Bell

Rachel Bell

Hillary Bor

Hillary Bor

Clayton Carper

Clayton Carper

Anna Florzak

Joel Limo

Rico Loy

Guor Marial

Guor Marial

Yonas Mebrahtu

Meaghan Nelson

Brittany Rover

Brittany Rover

Dani Stack

Paige Ties

Paige Ties

Kiel Uhl

Kiel Uhl

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