After Iowa’s surprising fifth-place finish at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational on Oct. 3, there is a higher level of optimism permeating through the men’s cross-country program.

Highlighted by freshman Jeffrey Thode’s second-place finish, Iowa scored 176 points in Madison, Wis.., and for the first time this season, the Hawkeyes have begun receiving top-30 votes. Their national ranking is 34th.

Heading into Saturday’s pre-NCAA Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind., little is different in training since the first week of the season, save for a few adjustments to help prevent injuries.

“Not much has changed really,” Thode said. “We have been running fast to slow for regimented amounts of time to prevent injury.”

While training has remained standard, head coach Larry Wieczorek understands the importance of the meet held near the Indiana State campus, which could help his teams rise through the ranks.

“It used to be that [pre-NCAA meets] would just be for scouting the course that would host the NCAA championship,” he said. “But because of the nature of the NCAA selection committee, it has grown into an important meet to score points against teams from different regions. It has really become the best meet of the year for getting those points before nationals.”

The nature of NCAA cross-country dictates that at-large eligibility for nationals is based solely on a team’s record versus its quality against ranked teams, making meets like the pre-NCAA Invite invaluable to squads trying to gain national recognition.

“Our system is totally objective,” Wieczorek said. “Even in college basketball, there is some level of subjectivity. In cross-country, they just look at who wins.”

The Iowa men’s cross-country team will take part in three races at the meet. The pool of nearly 70 teams will be split into two races — the Blue Race and the White Race, named in honor of the home team’s school colors.

Seven Iowa runners will be split between the two races. The rest of the traveling team, which is a maximum of 12 runners, will run in an open exhibition race held after the two main events.

“Jesse [Luciano] and Jeffrey [Thode] have been running strong,” Iowa cocaptain Tommy Tate said. “We need the other three to seven guys to get up there with them, get them all running around 25-minute times, so they get in the top-100 finishers.”

“Stepping up” will be the phrase of the day — the Hawkeyes will be without injured top finishers Sam Bailin, Nick Holmes, and cocaptain Brenden Camplin for the second meet in a row.

The meet will feature a number of ranked squads, including eight of the top 10 cross-country teams in the nation. Wieczorek said he doesn’t think this will hurt his team’s chances, though.

“With the injuries, it’s the same team that we ran for the Wisconsin [Adidas Invitational],” Wieczorek said. “And like Wisconsin, this will be a résumé builder.”