By Adam Hensley
Hawkeye cross-country still feels the bruises following a cutthroat Big Ten championship race. The men finished last and the women 11th, each scoring more than 300 points.
The remedy for a rebounding effort lies on Friday, when Iowa will compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional at the Ashton Cross-Country Course.
Iowa has the home-course advantage
Friday marks the third and final home meet for Iowa this season — the prior two meets featured favorable outcomes.
At the Hawkeye Invitational, Iowa’s first meet of the season, the women won the meet, scoring only 47 points. Tess Wilberding finished first, and Madison Waymire placed third.
The men’s team finished only behind Iowa State, but Michael Melchert broke the school record in the 6,000 meters with his time of 18:12.8.
The next time the Hawkeyes returned to Ashton was for the Regional Preview on Oct. 1. The men obliterated the competition — no exaggeration here. The top eight runners were all Hawkeyes, and Iowa only scored 15 points (second place South Dakota scored 52).
The women finished third, but Wilberding continued to impress people at home. She finished second, and fellow Hawkeyes Andrea Shine and Lauren Opatrny recorded top-11 finishes.
The women only scored 16 more points than first-place Illinois (50).
Since 2008, the total home meets for the Hawkeyes never surpassed two. In the past five home meets (including the 2014 Big Ten Championships), the men averaged just higher than a third-place finish, while the women are just over fourth place.
Last time Iowa hosted a regional meet was in 2005
Iowa’s finishes at the 2005 NCAA Midwest Regional were some of the program’s best in the past 20 years.
The men finished second. Five Hawkeyes finished in the top 20, with Eric MacTaggart leading the way at 10th.
On the women’s side, the Hawkeyes placed sixth. Meghan Armstrong highlighted Iowa’s charge with her ninth place finish.
2005 was the first and only time Iowa hosted the Midwest Regional meet.
In the past five Midwest Regionals, Iowa has finished in the top 20 all but once
In 2012, the women’s team finished 21st. Aside from that, the other four races have all finished better than 19th, with the best finish coming in 2011 (fourth place).
The men’s team has finished in the top 15 in each of the past five seasons. Their best finish in that span came in 2014, when they placed seventh.
Recently, neither team finished with flying colors.
In 2015, the men finished 15th – their worst finish in that five-year span. The women finished 19th – their second-worst finish in that same time frame.
Iowa hasn’t been at full strength for a single meet since Sept. 24
Sept. 24 — the Roy Griak Invitational — was the last time that all key runners competed in a single race.
At the Regional Preview, Ben Anderson, Melchert, and Waymire all sat out.
The team then split the roster in two for the Bradley Classic and the Pre-Nationals. Top runners competed at Pre-Nationals, while the underclassmen, many of whom contribute to Iowa’s top-seven rotation, traveled to Bradley.
At the Big Ten Championships, Melchert and Daniel Soto failed to suit up for the men’s team, each battling injuries.
Despite the varying lineups, all systems are go heading into Friday.
The underclassmen who stepped up on the men’s side at Big Ten’s (and also on the women’s side — three freshmen and two sophomores competed) and gained valuable experience that many hope will translate into another successful regional meet.
Struggles at the Big Ten Championship don’t repeat at regionals — for the men
From 2011-15, the men failed to finish in the top half of the teams at the conference championship; however, they’ve placed in the top ten in two of those years at the Midwest Regionals.
The women’s finish at Big Ten’s correlates closely to their placing at regionals. The only exception in that five-year span wa 2012; the team finished 10th at Big Tens but went on to place sixth at regionals.