The hills at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School provided a huge test on Tuesday for the Ankeny Centennial cross country teams.
The Jaguars were ready for the challenge.
The Centennial boys’ and girls’ teams both placed second in the Tom Karpen Invitational. A total of nine boys’ teams and six girls’ squads competed at the meet.
“I think we did really well with our mindset and our motivation up those hills,” said Centennial senior Karsten Peters. “We really hit those hills hard.”
Eighth-ranked Norwalk won the boys’ title with 40 points. No. 10 Centennial finished with 49 points.
It was the second straight crown for Norwalk, which edged the Jaguars by five points a year ago.
“We raced well again as a pack,” said Centennial boys’ coach Chad Fickbohm. “The leadership of Tyler (Schermerhorn), Cooper (Majors), Karsten and AJ (Schermerhorn) has been incredible. They believe in each other and trust the race plan. We know we need our next group to close that gap, and that’s what we are focusing on over the next weeks.”
Marshalltown’s Conner Smith won the 5k race in a time of 16:36. He finished 13 seconds ahead of Ethan Eichhorn of Council Bluffs Lewis Central.
Tyler Schmerhorn placed fifth for the Jaguars in 17:07. Peters took sixth in 17:08.
“I think I had a really good race,” Peters said. “I know some of us aren’t as satisfied, but I think overall we put in a really good effort.”
Majors placed ninth in 17:15, and AJ Schermerhorn finished 11th in 17:24. Carter Lust was Centennial’s fifth scoring runner, placing 20th in 18:10.
“We tried our best to maintain the pack, which is kind of our race strategy,” Peters said. “We stuck to our race plan which was to kind of come out a little conservative, but it got kind of tossed up because of some of the turns where we had to surge once in a while to get ahead.”
Parker Lundberg and Noah Segar both posted a time of 18:24, placing 31st and 32nd, respectively, for the Jaguars. Brendan Owens took 33rd in 18:29, Joel Nelson took 44th in 18:55, and Gabe Hadley finished 50th in 19:05.
No. 5 Valley won the girls’ title for the second straight year, placing four runners in the top six and finishing with 25 points. No. 9 Centennial ended up with 37 points.
“After three straight meets of intensely competitive fields, we had a smaller meet where athletes had elbow room on the course, could focus on their own pacing strategies, and see their teammates,” said Centennial girls’ coach Eric Cogdill. “We also had the great opportunity to run 10 girls in the varsity race which allowed for some newcomers to get their first tastes (of varsity competition).”
Valley’s Addison Dorenkamp won the race in a time of 18:32. Teammate Kamryn Ensley was the runner-up in 18:41.
Centennial placed five runners in the top 10. Rondi Quass led the way with a third-place finish in 19:40.
Tillie Smith placed seventh for the Jaguars in 20:38. Bella Hodges took eighth in 20:45, Kendall Jorgensen was ninth in 20:46, and Anika Mohrhauser finished 10th in 20:48.
Lauren Reimer was 12th in 21:15, Julia Flick took 13th in 21:27, Cora DenHartog placed 18th in 21:36, Cam Hershberger was 26th in 21:55, and Emily Petersen finished 29th in 22:06.
“I thought we were terrific on short rest and now this week and next week are great chances to get in some solid training and hopefully get everyone healthier as October nears,” Cogdill said.
