Cross Country Returns to Ames Next Week

AMES, Iowa – The 2025 cross country season is quickly approaching, and with it plenty of excitement surrounding the Iowa State men's and women's teams. The two squads will look to take success and positive experiences from last season into this fall as they seek to return to the NCAA Championships in Columbia.

The 2024 Cyclone women spent much of the season developing and learning under coach Cale Wallace, then in his first season working with ISU women's distance runners. Maelle Porcher qualified for the NCAA Championships while younger runners gained valuable experience throughout the regular season that will undoubtably set the tone for the fall of 2025.

"I think going into year two, what's cool about it is that this summer was still my first summer, actually getting to coach them and working through some things with them," said Wallace. "Last year, taking over basically right now, was kind of just like a little thrown into the fire and just working with what we've got. Now it's a little more of my team and our program, so just feeling a little more in control of things maybe than a year ago."

While the Iowa State women lost three of their top four runners from 2023, they had upperclassmen ready to learn and lead in 2024. Porcher was the top individual finisher for the Cyclones in every meet, posting top 25 finishes at both Nuttycombe and Wisconsin Pre-Nationals and top 10 finishes at the Big 12 Championships and NCAA Midwest Regional. Riley Beach and Bella Heikes also stepped into leadership roles, earning all-region honors with top 25 finishes in Peoria a season ago.

"I think their leadership helped those young ones understand that those three didn't just get to where they were by just showing up and being that good. It takes time and it takes development and understanding that to be one of the four or five or six best runners on the team, you've got to do stuff the right way when you're younger. Even though maybe you're not contributing to the team right now, what you're doing helps you two years down the line and three years down the line. So taking that and also for (those three), wanting to leave a stamp on, 'this is what we've done over the last couple of years and now this is our team, our last shot to do something really cool and special and be a really big part of that.'"

On the men's side, Iowa State carried momentum from its 2023 top-five NCAA finish into 2024, bringing home the NCAA Runner-Up trophy, the second in four seasons, with four individuals earning All-America status. It was the exclamation point on the season marked by consistent growth, as Iowa State posted runner-up team finishes at both the Nuttycombe Invitational and Wisconsin Pre-National meets before finishing third at the Big 12 Championships and runners-up again at the NCAA Midwest Regional. Despite the impressive performances at well-attended meets, Iowa State never appeared higher than fourth in national coaches polls ahead of the NCAA Championships.

"Last year's season was one that we're incredibly proud of and speaks to the culture and the history of our Iowa State cross country team, in the sense of we can do some really cool things in the postseason," said head coach Jeremy Sudbury. "I think last year's team really came together the last three weeks of the season, starting at Big 12s getting third behind really good BYU and Oklahoma State teams. But being as close as we were over 8K gave us a lot of confidence. We knew where we were and I think when we moved to the 10K, we've been a team that's always been able to handle the difference in the two race distances."

When the men's race distances increased to 10K, the Cyclones delivered. They finished second behind Oklahoma State at the regional meet and were in position to have a chance at claiming a national championship in Madison a week later. But BYU held on to win the title, finishing with 124 points to ISU's 137.

"It was bittersweet, and there were definitely some 'what ifs' left with the sense that we lost the national title by 13 points. And obviously we had a few things not go our way during the race, specifically with one of our top athletes falling down, but speaking again to the culture and his character, being able to pop back up and rally and still being an All-American. Just very proud as a coach, but at the same time, to see it slip through your fingertips is definitely something that we're going to carry with us going into this year. So the vibes are really high."

Joash Ruto, who tripped and fell in between the 4K and 5K marks, started his race at the national meet among the top five at the second- and third-kilometer marks. Halfway through the race he had dropped to 83^rd, 70 spots, following his fall. Iowa State was not out of the title race, considering Said Mechaal and Robin Bera remained among the top 25 individuals and Sanele Masondo was making his move toward the top 40. Ruto rallied back, racing all the way to a 34^th-place finish to earn All-America status along with Mechaal (10^th), Masondo (23^rd) and Bera (37^th). Gable Sieperda also finished his Cyclone career on a high note as ISU's fifth scorer, finishing 49^th overall and jumping an average of 10 spots over each of the last 6K of the race. While holding a lot of pride for their runner-up finish, Sudbury and his team feel there is unfinished business waiting in Columbia, this year's national meet site.

"I think we'll see here in the next few weeks where we really stack up, but for us it's really simple. We want to win a national title, and we're going to run with the expectation of trying to do that this year. I think we've wrestled with it as coaches, 'do you talk about that? Do you keep that kind of close to your vest?' In the past, we've had the luxury of being the underdogs and not really ever being too much in the national light until it happened at the end of the season. This year, I think our focal point going into preseason and into our first couple weeks is how do we address that? How do we handle a high ranking? How do we navigate that throughout the whole year? And again, relying on our history, our culture, and something that we maturely want to be able to really build off of. And yeah, let's go win a national title."

The pieces are in place for another run at a championship as Iowa State will return Bera, Masondo and Ruto, along with Devan Kipyego who also ran at the national meet and finished in the top 100 as a sophomore. Ryan Watts earned all-region honors in 2024 and had a solid outdoor track season, posting an Iowa State all-time top 10 time in the 10K (28:22.71). The Cyclones will also welcome back Rodgers Rotich (2023 All-American) after limited action a season ago and will get a chance to see Hanibal Haile on the grass after his recovery from ankle surgery last winter.

"When we have those three guys already kind of waiting in the wings, that really looks like a nice top seven," said Sudbury. "One of our goals this year is to try to solidify a pack running mentality that we can use through the whole regular season, so in the end we can really benefit from a national meet. And our sport is unique, sometimes the fifth athlete is the most important athlete because he scores the most points. So, if you can get that fifth runner to really almost be interchangeable with your top four, then all of a sudden you can have a great run at the national meet and that's been one of our big goals as a program, developing that fifth runner."

The women are also excited about their expected high ceiling this season, welcoming back younger runners who gained valuable experience a year ago. Ruby Hughes ran in five meets last season and nearly earned all-region honors. Betty Kipkore missed last season with an injury but competed unattached on the track this spring. Olivia Verde posted solid performances during outdoors to prepare for her first cross country season after battling through an injury early last year.

"Olivia, I think, is ready to have a really big year," said Wallace. "She came in and kind of got hurt right off the bat last year and didn't have any kind of a cross country season. So, in a way, she's still a freshman, but still has basically a full semester of actual racing experience and getting through being thrown in the fire there. So even though she's a freshman, still kind of expecting her to do more than you would a typical freshman. And then hopefully we will have a couple more incoming freshmen that'll be able to make an impact."

Both Sudbury and Wallace credit the natural cycle of cross country, indoor track and outdoor track as one of the greatest primers for the upcoming season.

"I like to think of our sport as a cycle where indoor helps outdoor, outdoor helps cross, cross helps indoor, and it's a never-ending cycle," explained Wallace. "Last year with cross country, it kind of felt like you're starting with a blank slate. What we're doing in cross is stuff they've never done before, so it's going to take a little while to get used to and adjust to. And it was also learning from and getting better in what we did in training, but then also trying to take some confidence in what we did in actual races. Having a couple of girls that in the past, the best they've ever done is maybe making a final and scoring a point or two in track, whereas this year we were able to have a couple of girls that were conference runners-up, and Maelle even making nationals again."

"They're all really linked," Sudbury continued. "We really look at outdoors as the biggest catalyst to help us getting ready for the cross country season. And so, there's a few different strategies. You' got some athletes that are obviously national players that are trying to score, like a Joash Ruto or a Rodgers Rotich who actually were fourth in NCAA outdoors. And then there's guys like Ryan Watts or Devan Kipyego, who didn't necessarily score at the national meet, but made huge gains in their personal bests. We had athletes run marks that I feel like now will translate over when you talk about having a fifth man on a team where he PRs 13:30s in the 5K or 28:20 in the 10K. It just starts to build a depth factor that you can rely on and you can translate to the grass."

The Cyclones offseason work will be tested right off the bat. Following the third annual Cyclone Preview on August 29, Iowa State will travel athletes to Columbia for the Gans Creek Classic for a preview of the national meet site.

"I think when you look at our schedule, the best way to describe it is we're hoping it's a snowball that starts at the top of the mountain, and as it goes down the hill, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It's like a crescendo essentially," said Sudbury. "The Gans Creek meet is going to be really well attended. We're very fortunate, we've run there quite a bit. Quite a few athletes on our roster have run there a few times already. We'll run 8K versus 10k, so it's not exactly the same, but it's going to be a chance to obviously get a feel for it, see how it rolls, how it runs, in particular, I think the last thousand meters of that course is kind of tricky. So, getting a chance to get our athletes to feel that in terms of tactics."

After Gans Creek and a three-week training cycle, ISU travels to Wisconsin to participate in the Nuttycombe Invitational, also a huge meet with a loaded field, to wrap up the regular season.

Wallace expects his squad to rise to the challenge and make a jump from last year's result. "Nuttycombe is the same concept (as Gans Creek), trying to improve upon our finish last year. I think last year we maybe finished 20^th, so I think that's still going to help us. Because a lot of the women last year, like Bella and Riley, it was kind of their first experience in a setting like that. And so now it's not the first time they've experienced it, they're used to it. And so we're going back there and trying to get in the top 12 or 15 of that meet."

After Nuttycombe, Iowa State takes another three-week break to prepare for postseason meets, beginning with the Big 12 Championship in Lawrence. The Cyclones will travel to Stillwater for the NCAA Midwest Regional before the NCAA Championship at Missouri on November 22.

Both coaches are hopeful that the regionally based schedule will allow Cyclone Nation to flood cross country courses with Cardinal and Gold this fall.

"If you haven't followed us before, this is a heck of a year to start," said Sudbury. "It should be a lot of fun. We have a regional type of schedule, so it's fairly close to home. Part of that is by design to allow family and fans to be able to travel to the meets. I think Columbia is about four and a half hours away for the national meet. One of my mantras this year, we're calling it 'Pack the Podium.' So, if we do get that chance to be on the podium this year, I'm going to try to get as many people up there as possible; fans, family, everybody. We feel like that is why we are successful at Iowa State; we have such great support. Obviously, our administration, but also just from a fan perspective and just that Midwest, Iowa nice culture of everybody was really rooting for us."

"Last year at the national meet for the men, it seemed like every 200 meters there was a Cyclone flag hanging on the course somewhere," Wallace added. "It's maybe stuff like that doesn't seem like it would help to someone that's a spectator, but when you're out there and you're running, you're hurting and you're trying to grind through it, just seeing that and being reminded of why you're doing it and who you do it for, it really helps. So, any kind of fan support we can get is awesome."

Players Mentioned

Riley Beach

Hanibal Haile

Bella Heikes

Ruby Hughes

Betty Kipkore

Devan Kipyego

Sanele Masondo

Said Mechaal

Maelle Porcher

Joash Ruto

Gable Sieperda

Olivia Verde

Ryan Watts

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