While football will start their 2009 campaign against a relative “cupcake” team in Northern Iowa, the Panther’s men’s cross-country squad will do more than serve as a walk through for Iowa head coach Larry Wieczorek’s squad at the Ashton Cross-Country Course for today’s Hawkeye Invitational, which will begin at 6:30 p.m.

With a roster that boasts an impressive freshman class and seven returning runners, Wieczorek has made sure his team knows that tonight’s meet is far more than just a tune up.

“He’s been telling us how tough [the Panthers] will be,” said redshirt freshman Nick Holmes, who won last season’s Hawkeye Invitational with a time of 18:33. “They are bringing a lot of talent.”

Some of that talent includes Steven Dak, a junior-college transfer from Iowa Central. Last season, Dak was named a junior-college All-American, finishing second in the country.

In fact, his season best 8,000 meter time of 24:11 while at Iowa Central tops Northern Iowa’s best time in that event.

Joining Dak will be heralded Panther freshman Andrew Nelson of Geneva, Ill., who ran the mile in 4:09 his senior year of high school. The time was the seventh-best in the country last year.

Northern Iowa sophomore Alex Mark may also cause problems for Iowa. His 8,000 meter time of 26:21 ranks second in school history.

Iowa will be without fifth-year senior Brendan Camplin, who will be held out as a preventative measure because of a sore foot.

Wieczorek joked that he wished the Hawks had scheduled an easier opening meet like many other sports choose to do, but he said he is trying to set realistic expectations for his team before the first collegiate meet of the season.

“For me, if they run like they do in practice, then I’m satisfied,” the coach said. “But subjectively speaking, I’d like to win the race.”

To win against Northern Iowa, Wieczorek will look upon his more experienced runners to set the pace for the less experienced members of his squad. One of the new faces running for Iowa tonight will be highly touted freshman Jeff Thode, who understands the adjustments he will have to make at the collegiate level.

“I’ve never ran more than three miles in a race,” said Thode, from Schaumburg, Ill. “[The Hawkeye Invitational] will be the first time I will run the full 6,000 meters.”

Wieczorek has made the adjustment from high school to college an easy one for the freshman runner, letting him know his early role on the team and allowing him to get comfortable early on.

“I’ve never had a pack to run in,” Thode said. “In high school, I was always running out by myself. I don’t have to do that now.”

Though Wieczorek has high expectations for his team, he understands that his runners are still early in their development and is hoping his group can give a performance it can build on throughout the season.

“I want them to set a blueprint they can go off of,” Wieczorek said. “You want to peak at the end of the season. [The Iowa runners] will make the lineups themselves based on how they perform each week.”