The Ankeny girls’ cross country team has been remarkably consistent over the last few years.
The Hawkettes placed seventh in last year’s Class 4A state meet with 195 points. It was the team’s third straight seventh-place finish after placing sixth in 2021, which was the program’s highest finish since taking fifth in 1988.
However, Ankeny coach TJ Jumper will now have to replace a trio of varsity regulars, including Drew Beason. Beason was a four-time state placewinner who is now competing for South Dakota.
Sophia Graber was also a four-time state qualifier who earned a pair of top-50 finishes in her final two seasons. Lauren Jackson was a three-time qualifier for the Hawkettes.
“We lost some longtime varsity runners for us, but we have some upperclassmen and a couple underclassmen who look primed to make a jump in performance,” said Jumper, whose team is eighth in the Class 4A preseason rankings from the Iowa Association of Track Coaches.
There are about 30 girls on the squad. Seniors Makenna Madetzke, Ainsley Kiene, Reagan Prendergast and Ivy Wiegand are all state-meet veterans, while senior Ella Schulz has some varsity experience along with juniors Bella Sullivan and Vanessa Wise.
Prendergast could become the Hawkettes’ next four-time state qualifier. Kiene and Madetzke are both seeking their third trip to state.
“We are excited about this team,” Jumper said.
Madetzke placed 49th at the state meet in 2023, then blossomed into one of the state’s top runners as a junior, when she elected to give up soccer and focus on her running. She took 21st in last year’s state meet with a time of 18 minutes 49 seconds.
In the spring, Madetzke helped Ankeny to a fifth-place finish in the Class 4A state track meet. She earned medals in all four of her events.
Madetzke placed fifth in the 1,500 and sixth in the 800. She also anchored the runner-up distance medley and fifth-place 4×800 relays.
Prendergast, meanwhile, joined Madetzke on the 4×800 relay. She previously won a state title in that event as a freshman.
Prendergast placed 45th in the state cross country meet in 2022. Kiene took 42nd the following year, and Wiegand finished 89th a year ago in her state-meet debut.
“We have some very consistent performers with a ton of experience in the top end of our lineup,” Jumper said. “We will have some depth at runners 5-7 with multiple runners who are coming into the season with very close times. They will help push each other to improve.”
The Hawkettes will open their season on Tuesday by competing in the Jaguar Invitational at DMACC.
“The key to our season is being detailed with our training paces to maximize improvement so we are confident to execute our race plans and strategies,” Jumper said. “This team is a crew of mentally tough and fierce competitors. Our motto is ‘You go, I go’, and this will emphasize that we have to not only be willing to ‘go’ when it’s time in a race to really push individually, but we have to ‘go’ together.
“This togetherness will make ‘the hard’ easier to overcome,” he added.