Iowa State Men Qualify for Fourth Straight NCAA Championship

AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State men's cross country team booked its trip back to the NCAA Championships with an automatic qualification at the NCAA Midwest Regional on Friday morning. The Cyclones finished second in the team race with six runners earning USTFCCCA All-Region honors.

ISU also picked up two points over in-state foe Iowa in the Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series.

"What a day!" said director of cross country/track and field Jeremy Sudbury. "The weather was awesome, the course was beautiful and we had an incredible crowd. We're really appreciative for our administration and all the support we had today. And looking at performances, on the men's side, we wanted to be aggressive today. We haven't had the season we really wanted to have so far. And so today was a big statement for us in terms of getting a lot of confidence in the last eight days of the season. I have to check in with the guys still, but I feel like we ran that really smart, a lot of tempo-esque effort, and, honestly, the times were way faster than I was expecting for it to be a regional day. So, yeah, I'm excited. I think we can go toe-to-toe with anybody, and we have eight days. We'll plug Micah Peters back in the lineup for nationals and get another bullet that's fresh. So, yeah, couldn't be more proud of the team, and again, so appreciative and thankful for everybody that came out to support us today."

Robin Kwemoi Bera took his turn pacing Iowa State, finishing seventh overall in 28:56.6 on the Cyclones' home course. Joash Ruto and Meshack Kimutai followed closely behind in 11^th and 12^th while Rodgers Kiplimo (16^th), Devan Kipyego (17^th) and Dylan Maloney (18^th) strung together three more top 20 finishes to help the team effort. All six earned all-region honors, the most of any program at the meet. Ryan Watts rounded out the field for tenth-ranked ISU, finishing 56^th in 30:10.8.

Team Results
1. No. 3 Oklahoma State, 57; 2. No. 10 Iowa State, 61; 3. Wichita State, 132; 4. No. 22 Minnesota, 155; 5. No. 26 Missouri, 159; 6. No. 30 Tulsa, 189; 7. South Dakota State, 198; 8. Kansas, 199; 9. Bradley, 251; 10. Loyola, 280; 11. South Dakota, 353; 12. Illinois State, 360; 13. North Dakota, 363; 14. Illinois, 392; 15. Oklahoma, 406; 16. Nebraska, 472; 17. Iowa, 480; 18. Kansas State, 494; 19. Drake, 525; 20. Northern Iowa, 548; 21. North Dakota State, 589; 22. DePaul, 634; 23. St. Thomas (MN), 645; 24. Creighton, 655; 25. UIC, 705; 26. Saint Louis, 722; 27. Southern Illinois, 732; 28. Eastern Illinois, 822

Individual Results

1. Brian Musau, Oklahoma State, 28:47.1; 7. Robin Kwemoi Bera, Iowa State, 28:56.6; 11. Joash Ruto, Iowa State, 28:58.3; 12. Meshack Kimutai, Iowa State, 29:03.6; 16. Rodgers Kiplimo, Iowa State, 29:08.5; 17. Devan Kipyego, Iowa State, 29:14.1; 18. Dylan Maloney, Iowa State, 29:15.0; 56. Ryan Watts, Iowa State, 30:10.8

Up Next
Iowa State travels to Terre Haute, Ind. next Saturday, November 21 for the NCAA Championship. The women's 6K race will begin at 9:20 am CT with the men's 10K to follow at 10:10 am CT. Both races will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Players Mentioned

Robin Kwemoi Bera

Meshack Kimutai

Rodgers Kiplimo

Devan Kipyego

Dylan Maloney

Joash Ruto

Ryan Watts

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics

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