AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State women’s cross country team swept the top-six individual finishes enroute to a team title at the second annual Cyclone Preview. Maelle Porcher was the individual champion to lead the Cyclone effort.

“The athletes ran great, we had really nice stuff happen for both the men and women,” said director of track and field/cross country Jeremy Sudbury. “On the women’s side, we ended up running the whole roster. Coach (Cale) Wallace wanted to see where everybody was at and obviously get a chance to evaluate how training has been going. They’ve been training pretty hard this week and maybe doing some things they’ve never done before, so just getting that validation of ‘we’re tired but we can still run well’ was good.”

Despite losing three of its top four finishers from the 2023 NCAA Championships squad, four upperclassmen stepped up to lead Iowa State to the team title in its 2024 season opener. Porcher took the individual title in 16:58.8 while seniors Bella Heikes (second) and Taylor Briggs (fourth) as well as junior Riley Beach (third) followed. Freshman Josie Baker opened her rookie campaign with a solid fifth-place individual finish in 17:13.6 while Sydney Morrell ran for sixth in 17:14.1 to open her sophomore season.

Freshmen Claire White and Becca Heitzig rounded out Iowa State’s top-10 individual finishers, placing eighth and ninth, respectively.

“Even though we ran controlled today, it still shows us a little bit of where we’re at,” said associate head coach Cale Wallace. “Obviously (the Nuttycombe Invitational) is a 6K race versus the 5K race we ran today, so we’re preparing for that and continuing to get better running on the grass.”

Up Next

Iowa State travels to Madison, Wisconsin on September 27th to participate in the Nuttycombe Invitational. The women’s “B” race will begin at 11 a.m. CT with the “A” race set to start at 12:20 p.m.

Team Results

1. Iowa State, 15; 2. UNI, 56; 3. Drake, 71

Individual Results

1. Maelle Porcher, Iowa State, 16:58.8; 2. Bella Heikes, Iowa State, 17:02.4; 3. Riley Beach, Iowa State, 17:08.7; 4. Taylor Briggs, Iowa State, 17:12.5; 5. Josie Baker, Iowa State, 17:13.6; 6. Sydney Morrell, Iowa State, 17:14.1; 8. Claire White, Iowa State, 17:18.6; 9. Becca Heitzig, Iowa State, 17:22.0; 11. Keelee Leitzen, Iowa State, 17:34.0; 14. Makayla Clark, Iowa State, 17:37.6; 15. Mya Trober, Iowa State, 17:40.4; 16. Aspen Fulbright, Iowa State, 17:41.9; 20. Ashlyn Keeney, Iowa State, 17:47.2; 23. Camryn Sattler, Iowa State, 17:58.5; 28. Ruby Hughes, Iowa State, 18:15.6