The Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team entered just three runners in the varsity race at the Knoxville Invitational on Tuesday.
The trio performed well in the hot conditions.
Emily Petersen placed ninth in the 5k race with a time of 22 minutes 27 seconds. Brianna Hynick was 16th in 23:55, and Julianne Stevens finished 23rd in 24:17.
“We are taking 14 of our top 17 girls to Iowa City on Thursday, so we had a small contingent of runners race in the varsity division,” said Centennial coach Eric Cogdill. “We offered this opportunity as their prior race results showed they were ready to compete against varsity competition from 3A schools. We set targets of placing in the top 15 for Emily and top 30 for Julianne and Bri and laid out a race plan in response to the near 90-degree heat on the course with rolling hills.
“The girls had phenomenal race execution and made great use of the opportunity to all finish higher than their targets. Each made passes in the final 200 meters which was also very exciting to see,” he added.
Teammate Savannah Klingensmith later placed third in the junior varsity race in 23:51.
“The JV race took place an hour later under cooler temps, and Savannah showed she could have joined those other three in the varsity race and held her own nicely,” Cogdill said. “She looked smooth and in control the whole race.”