There was no rust for the Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team to shake off.
For the second time in three years, the fifth-ranked Jaguars captured the team title in the Kirk Schmaltz Invitational on Thursday. The meet was held at the Iowa State cross country course in Ames.
Centennial posted a score of 54 points, matching its winning total from the 2022 meet. None of the other 11 squads in the field scored fewer than 100 points.
“Usually, our first meet of the year is a ‘rust buster’, but the team performed like a well-oiled machine,” said Centennial coach Eric Cogdill. “Our girls were out strong in the first half mile. While this is not our usual approach, we really encouraged them to commit to the race from the starting pistol. This was a calculated risk knowing that it would serve them better late in the season, but also knowing some of them were about to endure a painful racing experience. We have great trust in these girls and likewise they trust us coaches.”
The meet featured six of the top 12 teams in Class 4A. No. 4 Ankeny and No. 9 Valley both finished with 106 points, but the Tigers won the tiebreaker for second place.
The Hawkettes were making their debut under new coach TJ Jumper.
“I was extremely happy with the way we ran as a team at each of the different levels,” said Jumper. “In the 9/10 race, almost every single girl PR’d, especially our sophomores. At the varsity level I was really happy with how we went out, and we tried to execute a game plan. We trained through this meet, and we’re building toward the end of the year. The girls are right where they should be right now. I think we’re going to see some improvement the next couple of weeks. I love their competitive spirit and how much fun they have.”
Marley Turk of Ames won the 5K race on her home course, posting a time of 17 minutes 54 seconds. Centennial’s Anika Mohrhauser was the runner-up in 18:10.
Mohrhauser broke her own school record of 18:12 that she set at last year’s CIML Conference meet and then matched at a Class 4A regional meet.
“Anika certainly impressed, and she is eyeing a sub-18 performance in the future,” Cogdill said. “Following the Drake Relays 3,000-meter race last spring where Anika got gapped early and couldn’t close it late, we pivoted to a race plan to be among the lead pack for the state meet 3,000 to give herself a chance at scoring. The feedback from her was positive about putting herself in contention and trusting she’d find a way to get stronger over the final 25 percent of the race. She took a big step in this race.”
Mohrhauser was followed by teammate Haley Hveem, who took third in 18:30. She lowered her personal record by more than a minute.
“Haley was amazing,” Cogdill said. “We made some big changes to her training, and she put in very consistent work in the past year to earn her success. I had great confidence she was going to get under 19 minutes this year, and she was one of those big jumps I talked about in the season preview.”
Ankeny was led by Drew Beason. She placed fourth in a time of 18:43 after finishing third in last year’s race.
“I know it wasn’t my best, but I have all season to get where I want to be,” said Beason, who is taking a recruiting visit to Nebraska on Friday.
Bella Hodges placed 10th for the Jaguars in 19:06. Julia Flick was 12th in 19:10, Kylee Patterson took 27th in 19:47, Ellie Blevins was 30th in 19:57, and Trinity Klingensmith finished 31st in 19:58.
Klingensmith, a freshman, was competing in her first varsity race.
“Trinity had a marvelous debut, securing a sub-20 finish and putting the whole team under that threshold,” Cogdill said. “After the race, she showed great leadership and maturity focusing on supporting and lifting up other teammates.”
Ankeny’s Makenna Madetzke joined Beason in earning a top-10 finish. She placed seventh in 18:55.
Sophia Graber took 24th for the Hawkettes in 19:41. Lauren Jackson was 28th in 19:50, Reagan Prendergast placed 43rd in 20:40, Ivy Wiegand was 50th in 21:09, and Ella Schulz finished 56th in 21:39.
“I thought the team ran really well,” Beason said. “We trained really hard this summer with Jumper’s training (plan), and I think it really helped us. He listens to what we think we need, and he does all the research and he cares so much. He’ll do anything to make sure it’s the right type of training we’re doing.”
The Hawkettes and Jaguars had to wait an extra week to open the season after the Jaguar Invitational on Aug. 27 was cancelled due to the extreme heat.
“We were itching for a meet,” Jumper said. “We’ve been kind of grinding in practice, so it was nice to get out and compete against somebody else.”
Ankeny will compete in the Marshalltown Invitational on Thursday at Marshalltown Community College, while Centennial will run in the Cedar Rapids Jefferson Invitational at the Seminole Valley cross country course.