Although the Ankeny boys’ cross country team is third in the Class 4A preseason rankings by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches, the Hawks might be the team to beat on paper.
Ankeny returns four of its top seven runners from last year’s squad that earned a second consecutive third-place finish in Class 4A, led by defending state champion Ethan Zuber. Fellow seniors Tate Brownsberger and Nicholas Robie are also back along with junior Ike Smith.
“We return as much or more talent as anyone in the state, but I believe the top three podium positions at the state meet will come down to what teams are able to get kids that may have been running JV last year to step up this season,” said Ankeny coach Jon Lindaman. “I like the work several of our kids have put in, and we are in a really good position to make another run at the podium again. Justice Rathje, Zach Riley, Jackson Kaiser and Brett Augustine–along with some solid freshmen–will all be pushing for varsity spots. But schools like Dowling Catholic and Cedar Falls are really good programs that reload on a pretty consistent basis.”
Top-ranked Dowling is the three-time defending state champion, while No. 2 Cedar Falls placed second a year ago behind junior Jaden Merrick. Merrick was the state runner-up, finishing about 6 seconds behind Zuber.
But Ankeny’s four returning runners combined to score 93 points at last year’s state meet, better than what Dowling (107) and Cedar Falls (110) have returning.
“Our team will be committed to the same thing we are each season, and that is to be confident young men,” Lindaman said. “We will challenge our runners to be the very best versions of themselves and to be running our best races at the end of the season. We will not set the world on fire the first couple meets, but I am confident we will be among the favorites during the championship racing portion of the season.”
Zuber is on pace to become one of the state’s all-time greatest distance runners. He placed 11th at the state meet as a sophomore before winning the crown last year in a time of 15 minutes 7.7 seconds.
Zuber won seven of his nine races as a junior and finished second in the other two. He suffered a narrow loss to Natnael Kifle of Sioux City North in the district meet at Ames, but then avenged that defeat by pushing the pace in the state meet at Fort Dodge nine days later.
Zuber, who was named Iowa’s Gatorade cross country runner of the year, then enjoyed a tremendous season on the track last spring. He set a state meet record while winning the 3,200 and also placed second in the 1,600 to help lead the Hawks to the team title.
Zuber joined Smith and Robie on the winning 4×800 relay and also anchored the winning distance medley relay. Now, he will try to capture a second straight cross country crown, which would allow him to match the accomplishment of former Ankeny star Tim Sindt in 2017-18.
“We have told Ethan this summer, ‘If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse,'” Lindaman said. “He knows that there are a lot of extremely talented runners in the state–one of them happens to be his teammate (Smith)–and they all want the top spot. If he does not find a way to be better from where he was last year, someone else will. He understands that last year was last year and means absolutely nothing this season.
“With that said, he has had an outstanding summer of training and his workouts are way ahead of where he was a year ago at this time. We will continue to emphasize toughness and consistency, and he has been working hard to be a multi-dimensional runner that can win using a variety of different race strategies. Along with their training, Ethan and Ike have both put in some serious work with coach Mo in the weight room so they are strong, healthy, fast and ready to go. Both of these athletes should be at the front of every race they run this season,” he added.
Zuber is No. 1 in the preseason individual rankings, while Smith is seventh. Brownsberger (24th) and Robie (25th) are also ranked in the top 25.
Smith placed 15th at the state meet in a time of 15:49. He earlier took seventh at the CIML Conference meet, where he helped Ankeny to its first league title since 2007.
Brownsberger placed eighth at the district meet, then finished 39th at the state meet in 16:17. Last spring, he ran on the winning 4×400 relay at the state track meet.
Robie, meanwhile, took seventh at the district meet before placing 46th at the state meet in 16:22. He finished ninth in the 800 at the state track meet.
“Along with returning all-state performers Ethan and Ike, Nick and Tate both look to crash the top 15 party this season as well,” Lindaman said. “I love this team, and I can’t wait to see what they can do over the next couple months.”
Ankeny will open the season on Tuesday by competing in the Ankeny Centennial Invitational at DMACC. Lindaman said he thinks the Hawks are ready for the challenges ahead.
“Every summer I feel like I say the same thing, but this is the best summer I have seen as a head coach from a team,” he said. “We had around 50 of our 70 kids showing up all summer long looking to personally improve and make our team culture even better than what it has been. We are healthy for the most part, and guys seem to be much further ahead now than where they were at this time last season.”
Lindaman said it will also be important for some team leaders to step up.
“We obviously lost some running talent last season, but more importantly, we lost some outstanding leaders,” he said. “You simply cannot replace what Jake Bosch has meant to this program over the past four years. He has been the heartbeat and the rock that made sure everyone competed hard and had a lot of fun along the way. Abel Squires and Aidan Farrell were also multi-season regulars in our varsity lineup that have left a positive legacy. These guys left the program in a better place, and we owe much of our past and future success on the work they put into making this team great. All of the guys this season know not one person can replace these guys, so they will all need to step up in a variety of ways to fill the void.”