Ankeny Centennial swept the individual titles in the Cedar Rapids Kennedy Invitational on Thursday at the Seminole Valley cross country course.
Anika Mohrhauser won the girls’ 5k race in a time of 18 minutes 19 seconds. She led the sixth-ranked Jaguars to a second-place finish in the 16-team field.
AJ Schermerhorn then won the boys’ race in 15:13, which broke his own school record. He led No. 15 Centennial to a fourth-place finish among 18 teams.
No. 3 Pleasant Valley captured the girls’ crown with 34 points, placing four runners in the top seven. The Jaguars finished with 61 points.
Mohrhauser, who is ranked fifth in Class 3A as an individual, earned her first varsity victory. She finished 3 seconds ahead of No. 1 Grace Boleyn of Pleasant Valley.
“The big highlight was Anika picking up her first victory, and it was an excellent race,” said Centennial girls’ coach Eric Cogdill. “She took down the current No. 1-ranked runner, pulling away over the final kilometer and holding off a fierce charge at the end.”
Bella Hodges also earned a top-10 finish for the Jaguars. She placed eighth in 19:21.
Centennial’s Julia Flick took 16th in 19:39. Cora DenHartog placed 19th in 19:51, Haley Hveem was 20th in 19:52, Anja Peck placed 32nd in 20:18, and Tillie Smith finished 33rd in 20:20.
No. 10 Cedar Rapids Kennedy placed four runners in the top eight and defended its boys’ title with 39 points. No. 11 Pleasant Valley was second with 52 points, followed by No. 16 Cedar Rapids Prairie with 100 and Centennial with 129.
The fourth-ranked Schermerhorn easily claimed his third career victory. He finished 27 seconds ahead of runner-up Adam Gray of Kennedy.
Brendan Owens and Jack Behrens both posted a time of 16:57, placing 30th and 31st, respectively. They were followed closely by the duo of Sean Thomas in 35th and Aammin Hassan in 36th; both of them were clocked in 17:02.
Brayden Vander Wilt took 44th for the Jaguars in 17:13. Mark Nelson finished 50th in 17:20.
Both Centennial teams will compete in the Tom Karpen Invitational on Tuesday at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School.