A year ago, Ankeny Centennial’s AJ Schermerhorn earned a spot on the awards podium at the Class 4A state cross country meet, placing 12th in the 5k race with a time of 15:59.52.
However, Schermerhorn competed in the meet as an individual after the Jaguars failed to qualify as a team.
This year, Schermerhorn is hoping to be joined on the Fort Dodge course by his teammates.
“After learning how to race last year as a team and falling short of the state meet, the guys have followed AJ’s lead in offseason training,” said Centennial coach Chad Fickbohm. “He is a natural leader and has done a great job of empowering others to become team leaders. AJ wants the team to have success, and the team wants to be there for AJ–it really is a winning combination. It is just a great group that has fun being together.”
Schermerhorn, a senior, had eight top-10 finishes a year ago. He won the Tom Karpen Invitational at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School for his first career victory, then later took sixth at the CIML Conference meet before winning the district race at Marshalltown in 15:41.
“AJ is a great leader, and he absolutely set the example last season of how hard work and a positive attitude leads to huge improvements,” Fickbohm said.
There are 50 boys on the roster. Senior Brendan Owens and juniors Aammin Hassan and Brayden VanderWilt are the other returning varsity regulars.
Hassan and VanderWilt both posted a time of 17:04 at the district meet, where they placed 27th and 28th, respectively. Owens finished 40th in 17:48.
Senior Carter Lust was a varsity regular as a sophomore in 2021. He placed 105th at the state meet in 17:46, helping the Jaguars to a 14th-place finish in Class 4A.
“Carter looks pretty good coming off of an injury, so hopefully he will be able to compete this season,” Fickbohm said.
Juniors Sean Thomas, Mark Nelson and Corbin VanderWeerdt are also battling for varsity positions along with sophomores Jack Behrens, Cohen Moll, Davis Johnson and Ian Smith.
“They all had a great summer so we are keeping that momentum going and getting the others up to speed,” Fickbohm said.
Behrens and VanderWeerdt both have some varsity experience. Behrens competed at four meets last year, while VanderWeerdt ran at two.
Centennial was slated to open the season on Tuesday by hosting the Jaguar Invitational, but the meet was cancelled due to the extreme heat. The team will now prepare to make its debut on Aug. 28 at the Schmaltz Invitational in Ames.
The Jaguars are looking to return to the state meet after making back-to-back trips to Fort Dodge in 2020-21.
“Obviously, the boys set the goal of finishing the season at the state meet,” Fickbohm said. “We have to focus on continuous improvement and supporting each other every day. We have to learn how to best race as a team. The training has been better than ever so racing will be fun this season.”