A year ago, Ankeny’s Lauren McMahon emerged from out of nowhere to become one of the state’s top girls’ cross country runners.
Now, as quickly as she arrived on the scene, she is gone.
McMahon went out for the sport for the first time and won six of her first seven races before placing sixth in the Class 4A state meet, where she led the Hawkettes to a 12th-place finish. She is now competing for Iowa.
While McMahon has departed, Ankeny returns some experienced runners. Leading the way are senior Talia Dosh and junior Paige Beason.
“Both Talia and Paige are leading in a similar fashion as Lauren, quietly by setting the example,” said Ankeny coach Eric Klingensmith. “With Talia being a senior, she’s focused on having a stellar season and is constantly leading the younger ladies in their training and in team bonding.”
Dosh was Ankeny’s No. 2 runner at five of the eight meets last season. She opened the 2020 campaign with a fourth-place finish at the Kirk Schmaltz Invitational.
Dosh placed 10th in the Rich Engel Classic at Cedar Falls, where she helped the Hawkettes to their first team title since 2015. She later finished eighth in the CIML Iowa Conference meet at Ames, where she set a personal record with a time of 19 minutes 54 seconds.
Dosh took 16th at the regional meet as Ankeny qualified for state for the first time since 2016. She then placed 56th at the state meet in 20:00.
Beason, meanwhile, came on strong at the end of the season, placing 11th at the conference meet and 19th at the regional meet. She finished less than 10 seconds behind Dosh at both races after previously finishing an average of 50 seconds behind her teammate.
Beason helped Ankeny to a runner-up finish at the conference meet, where the Hawkettes finished just five points behind Ankeny Centennial. She later placed 69th at the state meet in a time of 20:14.
“We also have some returning ladies who ran varsity at some point last year,” Klingensmith said.
There are 53 girls on the roster. Seventeen of them are freshmen.
“Our practices are going very well, especially with the addition of some very hard-working freshmen to our squad,” Klingensmith said. “We have underclassmen who will definitely impact our team positively and could show impressive growth over the course of the season. One of them is Allie Macke, who showed her front-running abilities during her eighth grade cross country and track seasons last year. In addition, Drew Beason, Savannah Gage, Lauren Jackson and Sophia Graber are all in the mix for those impact roles.”
Ankeny is 13th in Class 4A in the preseason rankings by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches. The Hawkettes will open their season on Tuesday by competing in the Ankeny Centennial Invitational at DMACC.
“As always, we are focused on growth from race-to-race and making it to state as a team with individual qualifiers as well,” Klingensmith said. “This year especially, qualifying for state with a set of such young runners will allow them to see themselves continuing that tradition for years to come.”