After finishing three spots ahead of Ankeny Centennial at the season-opening Dragon Twilight Invitational on Aug. 28, the Ankeny boys’ cross country team finished three spots behind the Jaguars five days later at the KirK Schmaltz Invitational.
On Thursday at the Bobcat Invitational in Marshalltown, the crosstown rivals waged their closest battle yet this season.
Ankeny, the No. 20 team in Class 4A, placed seventh in the 26-team field with 209 points. No. 14 Centennial took eighth with 214 points.
“Our boys went out and had some really nice races,” said Ankeny coach Jon Lindaman. “Our top three (runners) were all under 17 minutes with our next two ready to break that barrier any race now. We really want to get all seven varsity runners under that threshold, which I am confident we will do by the time championship racing rolls around.”
Second-ranked Dowling Catholic won the meet with 57 points. No. 3 Johnston was second with 118, followed by No. 5 Dubuque Hempstead with 145.
Dowling’s Jackson Heidesch won the 5k race in a time of 15 minutes 19 seconds. Alex McKane of Iowa City West was the runner-up in 15:36.
Levi Hill led Ankeny with an 18th-place finish in 16:25. Teammate Jake Bosch was 19th in 16:27.
Abel Squires placed 40th for the Hawks in 16:48. London Schuchart took 61st in 17:10, Tate Brownsberger was 72nd in 17:22, Truman Patterson placed 76th in 17:27, and Christian Rathje finished 88th in 17:44.
“The key to our future success will be if we are able to close the gap between our top three and next four varsity runners,” Lindaman said. “This is one of the premier meets in the state, and gave us a really good indication of where we stand among the state’s best. There were 12 teams ranked ahead of us, and we were able to beat six of them. Our guys need to stay hungry and understand each race is another step in the journey.”
Centennial’s Tyler Schermerhorn placed 26th in a time of 16:34. Cooper Majors took 31st in 16:40, Karsten Peters was 33rd in 16:41, AJ Schermerhorn placed 39th in 16:46, Noah Segar was 86th in 17:41, Brendan Owens placed 109th in 18:01, and Parker Lundberg finished 133rd in 18:42.
