2008 Cross Country Preview

AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State cross country season is upon us. The Cyclone men's and women's teams are looking forward to building upon previous achievements. Both squads are filled with young talent; however head coach Corey Ihmels will be looking to seniors on both teams to step up into leadership positions.

“On the men's side, Kiel Uhl has been really steady for us the past three years,” Ihmels said. “On the women's side, Paige Ties is going to be a leader for us this year and she has been doing really well in practice. I'm really looking forward to see how she progresses.”

Leadership is always imperative in keeping the team on the same page, however there are plenty of newcomers that could be making immediate impacts on the course. While many of the top runners in the state have chosen to become a part the Cyclone tradition, plenty of out-of-state recruits have made their way to central Iowa to compete at Iowa State.

“Yonas Mebrahtu, Rico Loy and Joel Limo, along with the state champ from Iowa Devin Allbaugh are all newcomers that I think can help,” Ihmels said. “I don't know if we are going to run all those guys or who we are going to redshirt. We're still kind of working through the process.”

While the men have a lot of new runners to work with, the women's team has also made great progress in bringing in young talent and developing runners to take the next step.

“On the women's side we've got a great group of newcomers as well,” Ihmels said. “Two that I really look to make an impact this year is Meghan Nelson and Dani Stack. I think they've done a great job this fall and we look to them to bolster our line-up as the season goes along.”

Making it to the NCAA Championships last year was a huge step in the right direction for the men's cross country team. However, many of the runners feel that the pre-season ranking of 29th in the country is inaccurate.

“This year our goal is to place in the top ten at the NCAA national meet,” Uhl said. “I think we're all highly disciplined and we've all been with the system for a while. I feel like this is the first year here where everything is going to come together.”

Iowa State cross country teams will play host to the Big 12 Championships Nov. 1 on the ISU Cross Country course. The Big 12 Championships will be held in Ames for the first time since 1996 on Nov. 1. The teams are always looking for an advantage and the fact that they have the championship course to practice on will be of great assistance.

“We are going to hit parts of that course more so than maybe we would in a regular year because we know we are going to have to run here for the Big 12 meet,” Ihmels said. “We are going to try and use it to our advantage the best way we can. I think both sides are really excited about getting to run at home.”

Both teams will be training at a very high level this season; however the intensity of those work-outs may not be as extreme as seasons past. Coach Ihmels feels that starting the harder work later on in the season will assist the team's ability to run their best in later events.

“This summer's been a little bit about getting our base work in and we're starting a little later with the stuff we would normally do earlier in the year,” Ihmels said. “We've just become a little bit more conservative early on, and just trying to extend our fitness later into the year.”

Coach Ihmels and his staff are determined to make sure his athletes are the best in academics as well as athletics.

“You have got to have high expectations on the athletics side as well as the academic side,” Ihmels said. “At the end of the day we want them to do well in the class room and in four or five years have a degree and be able to move on and be successful in their life. It's about getting the right kids that want to come here and work here and do well academically.”

The Cyclones will get to test out their course as Iowa State plays host to the ISU Open Saturday. In-state rivals Drake and Northern Iowa will be competing this weekend, along with Big 12 rivals Colorado and Oklahoma State. The women's 6,000-meter race will start at noon, while the men's 8,000-meter race follows at 12:45 p.m.

Players Mentioned

Devin Allbaugh

Joel Limo

Rico Loy

Yonas Mebrahtu

Dani Stack

Paige Ties

Paige Ties

Kiel Uhl

Kiel Uhl

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics