It’s almost a given that the Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team will qualify for this year’s Class 4A state meet.
In the 11-year history of the program, the Jaguars have qualified for state 10 times. The only year that coach Eric Cogdill’s squad failed to make it to Fort Dodge was 2019.
The next year, however, Centennial earned a third-place finish in Class 4A, the team’s highest finish ever. Now, the Jaguars will be looking to reach the awards podium once again.
With all seven of the runners returning from last year’s ninth-place team, Centennial appears to be one of the state’s most experienced squads. The Jaguars are fifth in Class 4A in the preseason rankings by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches.
“The girls set a goal to be a top five team this year, and this team certainly is built for that,” said Cogdill. “Over the past decade, we have learned a lot must go right not just on that one particular day but also in the weeks leading up to it to end up one of the top three teams on the podium. In the past three years, seven different schools have made the podium. This team has the girls to do it as we will see some nice performance jumps from some of our returners which supports that target.”
Seniors Julia Flick, Bella Hodges and Anika Mohrhauser are all three-time state qualifiers. Senior Cora DenHartog is a two-time qualifier, and seniors Haley Hveem and Kyra Zinn are also back from last year’s team along with sophomore Ellie Blevins.
Junior Kylee Patterson also boasts some state meet experience. She placed 104th in Class 4A as a freshman in 2022, when she helped the Jaguars to a fourth-place finish.
“Our team depth is going to be very strong again this year,” Cogdill said. “Only two teams in state meet history have had all seven girls run under 20 minutes at the state meet. We missed being the third team to do so by only 3 seconds last year, while we had 11 girls break 20 minutes at least once last season.”
Mohrhauser is one of the state’s top distance runners. She has improved steadily each season, placing 39th at the state meet as a freshman and 16th as a sophomore before finishing ninth a year ago in a time of 18 minutes 18 seconds.
Mohrhauser placed third or higher at every race prior to the state meet. She set a school record of 18:12 while placing third at the CIML Conference meet, then matched that time while winning a Class 4A regional meet seven days later.
Mohrhauser’s victory helped Centennial to its third consecutive regional title. She also won two other races, including the Valley Invitational where the Jaguars defended their team crown.
“Anika has adopted a ‘me vs. the state’ mentality,” Cogdill said. “She certainly has a chance to contend for that (top) spot. The separation between the returning state medal winners is not very large, and Anika has head-to-head wins against each of those girls at least once in her career either in cross country or on the track.”
Like Mohrhauser, Hodges is a three-time top-50 finisher at the state meet. She placed 22nd as a sophomore before finishing 39th a year ago in 19:14.
Hodges had four top-10 finishes as a junior. She placed fourth at the regional meet in 18:58, the first time she broke the 19-minute barrier.
DenHartog placed 45th at the state meet in 19:22. She was followed by Blevins in 59th, Hveem in 69th, Flick in 76th and Zinn in 85th.
Flick is coming off an outstanding track season last spring. She placed 10th in the 800 at the state meet and ran on three relay teams that scored points.
Flick teamed up with Blevins, Patterson and Hodges on the sixth-place 4×800 relay that broke the school record. Hodges took eighth in the 1,500 and also joined Flick on the seventh-place distance medley relay.
“All eight of (the previous state qualifiers) also competed at state in a second sport last year,” Cogdill said. “Kyra is swimming again this fall where she has also been a state qualifier.”
There are 77 girls on the roster, including senior Tallie Plueger, who has been a varsity contributor for two years. Several other runners are also contending for varsity spots.
“Sophomore Ella Campbell ran an eye-opening Dam to DSM race back in June and has continued to look very strong to open this fall,” Cogdill said. “Freshmen Trinity Klingensmith and Greta DenHartog look like they will see some varsity opportunities. Additional returning letterwinners include juniors Piper Zeman, Trudy Haag and Taylor Porter, although Piper will serve in a helper role like Megan Gray in 2017 (due to a knee injury). A couple other freshmen have looked strong this fall too–Charlie Damstetter and Sophia Carnes.”
Mohrhauser is fifth in the preseason individual rankings, while Hodges is ranked 25th and DenHartog is 30th. The Jaguars will open the season on Tuesday by hosting the Centennial Invitational at DMACC.
“We’ve had a great buildup to the season and practices have been going relatively smoothly,” Cogdill said. “It’s a tall task, but we prioritize having each girl know everyone so as to build team cohesion. We also place an emphasis on our post-run strength and mobility regimen to help keep our athletes healthy for racing.”
Cogdill said he knows that several other teams in Class 4A will have similarly lofty goals, including the Jaguars’ crosstown rival.
“We have to remember that last year’s third- and fourth-place teams, Dallas Center-Grimes and Pleasant Valley, both return their top five girls while PV benefits from receiving Iowa City’s top runner,” he said. “Ankeny also returns its top five girls, and defending champion Johnston only lost their top girl. Those are the top five teams in the preseason rankings, and it very well could be drawing names out of a hat on any given day across the season. We have told the girls that as they get older they will forget the details of races, their places, and their times. But, they will always remember how they felt.
“We want them to step off the course feeling good about what they did and when the scores come in, we will be happy with whatever number gets put in front of our team,” he added.