Completed Event: Cross Country versus Cyclone Preview on August 29, 2025 , , Men: 1st, Women: 1st
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Iowa State University Athletics
Ihmels Looks Back on Very Good Year
12.15.2008 | Cross Country
AMES, Iowa -- The Iowa State men's and women's cross country teams started the 2008 season from different places. But the journey ended with both squads relatively in the same place, with goals met and the future looking bright. The common denominator for each team was the leadership of head coach Corey Ihmels. Ihmels agrees that the outlook is bright for 2009.
"We set the men's team's goals to improve our conference standing and to make it back to the NCAA Championship for the second straight season,” Ihmels said. “We accomplished those goals. The women started without high expectations and got better every meet.”
The Iowa State men started the season in the top 25 nationally. Hillary Bor, the track and field All-American, raced to an eighth-place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational in September to lead the Cyclones to a second-place team finish in an impressive field in Falcon Heights, Minn. The race was an auspicious start for a team bent on improving their national standing.
Two weeks later it was Kiel Uhl who stepped up at the Pre-National meet and led Iowa State on the course that would host the NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Ind. Uhl, the senior from Des Moines Roosevelt, placed 10th in a huge field and the Cyclones recorded a 10th-place finish overall. Uhl, a former U.S. Junior cross country champion, was Iowa State's first or second finisher at every meet.
“I am glad the Kiel Uhl and (senior) Kevin Born got to be a part of the steady improvement in our program to being a top 20 team,” Ihmels said. “Iowa State cross country has made steady improvement since they came to Iowa State.
On Nov. 1, Iowa State played host to the Big 12 Cross Country Cross Championships. The heat was on. ISU responded with its best league finish in 10 years with a third-place effort, just one point behind runner-up Colorado. Sophomore Guor Marial led the charge, finishing sixth with Uhl seventh and Bor 11th. It would be those three in that order at the Big 12, NCAA Midwest Regional and the NCAA Championships.
Ihmels took great satisfaction is Marial's assumption of a leadership role.
“Guor has figured it out,” Ihmels said. “He was solid all year. In the past injuries had limited him somewhat. This season demonstrated that his transition to college life in athletics and academics is now complete.”
Marial finished eighth to lead Iowa State to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Stillwater, Okla. Uhl was 12th and Hillary Bor 13th for the Cyclones. The performance earned ISU a spot in the NCAA Championships Nov. 24 in Terre Haute, Ind.
Iowa State was in the NCAA Championship for the second straight season. Ihmels ran on the 1995 and 1996 squads, the last time the Cyclones made back-to-back NCAA appearances.
The Cyclones had finished 30th at the 2007 NCAA meet and wanted to better that effort in 2008. Marial, Uhl and Bor finished among the top 46 finishers as Marial earned All-America honors with a 31st place effort. Born was the fourth Cyclone into the finish chute with the surprising Clayton Carper of Mason City as ISU's fifth man. When the scores were sorted, Iowa State had placed 17th overall, its best finish since a 15th-place in 1997.
“We began the season with specific goals and we accomplished them,' Ihmels said. “We wanted to scored less than 85 points at the conference meet and we accomplished that (67) goal. At the regional we took care of business. We improved dramatically our national standing at the NCAA Championship.”
Marial and Bor will return in 2009 along with ISU's trio of freshmen Rico Loy, Yonas Mebrahtu and Joel Limo.
“Our freshmen got some important experience and I think we will be a deeper team next season,” Ihmels said.
Expectations for the Iowa State women's team were low after Ihmels elected to redshirt ISU cross country All-Americans Lisa Koll and Grace Kemmey. Koll had a long outdoor track season that included setting the American collegiate record in the 10,000-meters, lapping nearly the entire field to win the NCAA 10,000-meter title and being the top collegiate finisher (eighth) in that event at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Koll had finished third and Kemmey fifth, respectively, at the 2007 Big 12 meet. Kemmey was selected by the league's coaches as the 2007 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.
“Lisa had a long season and was starting veterinary medicine school and Grace had the chance to go to graduate school as well,” Ihmels said. “To ensure they had a good transition and to help us down the road it was prudent that we give both of our All-Americans a redshirt season.”
With Iowa State's top guns out of the lineup, the only returner from the Iowa State top five at the 2007 Big 12 meet was Paige Ties. Ties would be thrust into a leadership role on a squad whose top seven featured three freshmen and two sophomores.
“We went out this season just to have fun,” Ihmels said of his women's team. “This was a year for our young runners to get some experience and adjust to training to race at this level. The team exceeded my expectations.”
Ties was Iowa State's top finisher at the Roy Griak Invitational and at the NCAA Midwest Regional. Two freshmen made unlikely front runners and help elevate the roster-depleted Cyclone women from expected Big 12 cellar-dwellers to middle of the pack challengers.
At the Big 12 Championship in Ames, freshman Meaghan Nelson led Iowa State to a ninth-place finish, placing 33rd overall. Fellow frosh Dani Stack was 36th and Ties 45th for ISU. Iowa State's fourth finisher was women's basketball player Anna Florzak, a junior and sophomore Rachel Bell rounded out the top five.
The Cyclones would place ninth in the 23-team NCAA Midwest Regional to finish a season of over-achieving that can only help the Cyclones, who will add another recruiting class to go with Koll, Kemmey and Iowa State's returning cast for next season.
“Our women did a tremendous job,” Ihmels said. “I feel like we did not lose momentum. Dani and Meaghan were true believers and listened and improved significantly following our plan. Paige was the team leader and she did a great job in that role. We are expecting good things next season.”
Goals for next season won't be set until after the track and field season. But it is safe to say that both teams will be looking up the Big 12 ladder strengthed by a 2008 campaign of consistent performance.
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