The seniors on the Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team are used to winning.
The Jaguars did it again on Wednesday.
Fourth-ranked Centennial easily won a Class 4A regional meet at Marshalltown, scoring a total of 29 points. No. 10 Dallas Center-Grimes (48 points) and No. 15 Davenport Central (74 points) also advanced to state.
“It’s really a testament to the senior class,” said Centennial girls’ coach Eric Cogdill. “They’ve picked up four of these (titles) in a row now. Only five teams in the state get to win one, and they’ve found four in a row. That was a big goal for them. Another goal was to get all seven girls in the top 15, and we ended up with six. We’ve had a good season, and we need to keep it rolling.”
While Cogdill’s team qualified for state for the 11th time in the 12-year history of the program, the Centennial boys’ squad was not as fortunate. The No. 8 Jaguars placed fourth in the district meet with 77 points, finishing seven points behind No. 20 Marshalltown for the third qualifying spot.
No. 5 Norwalk edged No. 15 Dallas Center-Grimes by one point, 53-54, to claim the boys’ crown. Those two teams advanced to state along with the host Bobcats, who placed three runners in the top seven.
“It’s tough when Marshalltown has three runners go that low,” said Centennial boys’ coach Chad Fickbohm. “And we knew Dallas Center-Grimes would be tough, because they’re healthy now. I don’t think we could have ran much better, but at least we got two of our guys to state.”
Piper Messerly of Dallas Center-Grimes won the girls’ 5K race with a time of 17 minutes 51 seconds. Centennial’s Anika Mohrhauser was the runner-up in 17:57.8, breaking her previous school record of 18:10.
“I tried to stay with (Messerly),” Mohrhauser said. “She got me on the hills. I was hoping at the end I could close in on her.”
Haley Hveem placed third for the Jaguars. She was clocked in 18:27.
“I’m pretty happy with my race,” said Hveem. “I kind of wanted to shadow the No. 4 and 5 (runners). I just wanted to move up throughout the race, because they’ve beaten me before and I just wanted to run with them.”
Ellie Blevins placed seventh in 19:15. Bella Hodges took eighth in 19:18, Julia Flick was ninth in 19:20, Trinity Klingensmith placed 13th in 19:38, and Kylee Patterson finished 19th in 20:38.
“I don’t know if we were confident,” Hveem said. “We were just excited to have a race with a lot less stress.”
Centennial’s top six finishers were honored as individual state qualifiers after the meet.
“Kylee has a little bit of a nasal thing going on, but other than that we’re healthy, we’re happy and we’re strong,” Cogdill said. “We’re hitting our stride at the right time.”
The Centennial girls’ team will be joined at the state meet by Cohen Moll and Brayden Vander Wilt of the boys’ squad. They punched their tickets to state by earning top-15 finishes.
Moll placed fourth in a time of 15:49. Preston Johnson of Marshalltown won the race in 15:32, finishing 6 seconds ahead of Norwalk’s Teegan Kralik.
“I definitely expected the lead pack to be as competitive as it was,” said Moll. “The race went out hard, and I knew there would be a fight for the lead. I think I ran that race well and placed where I was hoping I would.”
Vander Wilt also qualified for state with a 12th-place finish. He was clocked in 16:14.
“It is for sure a bittersweet feeling having only two of us moving on,” Moll said. “We were very surprised by how well a few teams ran and in the end it cost us.”
Davis Johnson placed 18th for the Jaguars in 16:30. Sean Thomas took 19th in 16:33, Corbin Vander Weerdt was 24th in 16:59, Mark Nelson placed 29th in 17:07, and Jack Behrens finished 31st in 17:31.
The state meet will be held on Nov. 1 at Fort Dodge. The girls’ race begins at 2 p.m., with the boys’ race to follow at 2:45.
Cogdill’s team will try to reach the awards podium for the second time. The Jaguars placed third in 2020.
“It’s going to take a lot of things going right,” he said. “We just need to be ourselves. Sometimes you have to hope that something will go wrong for another team, and four years ago nothing went wrong. We just had our day and got third. It’s going to take six or seven girls running to the best of their ability and a little bit of luck probably.”
Mohrhauser could be a contender for the individual crown. She placed ninth a year ago.
“I guess my goal is to win, but I also just want to have a strong last race,” Mohrhauser said.
Hveem would like to become a placewinner as well.
“Last year I got 69th, so that would be really cool to move up,” she said. “I try not to put that much stress on myself, but that would be really cool to medal.”