A total of 40 boys’ and girls’ cross country teams competed in the Bobcat Invitational on Thursday at Marshalltown Community College, including both Ankeny squads and the Ankeny Centennial boys’ team.
The fourth-ranked Jaguars placed fourth among 23 squads in the boys’ division with 151 points.
“It was another confidence-building race for us,” said Centennial coach Chad Fickbohm.
No. 5 Indianola won the team title with 66 points. No. 1 Cedar Falls, the two-time defending champion, placed second with 111 points and No. 10 Dowling Catholic was third with 134.
Ankeny finished 16th with 349 points.
“This meet is traditionally the most competitive meet outside of state, and this year was no different,” said Ankeny boys’ coach Jon Lindaman. “I can not be disappointed with all of our individual efforts. As I go down our results, most of our guys did some really nice things or showed nice improvement in this race. I love how our varsity team had a 43-second spread, so there are definitely some positive things to build on. However, we just need to compete a bit better as a team in meets like this. If we want to place better against big-time competition like this, we need to be a little more aggressive at the start, and the guys need to do a better job of working together in the race.
“Each runner needs to avoid being comfortable with their current position, and want the position ahead of them,” he added.
In the girls’ division, 15th-ranked Ankeny placed 10th in the 17-team field. The Hawkettes posted a score of 238 points.
No. 2 Johnston captured its third straight crown with 49 points. No. 13 Dallas Center-Grimes was the runner-up with 84 points, edging No. 3 Waukee Northwest by one point.
“We were really happy with our effort,” said Ankeny girls’ coach TJ Jumper. “We are trying to build to the end of the season and championship races so we did some heavy training earlier in the week, and we were not completely fresh coming into the meet. So we put a big emphasis on hitting our paces early in the race.”
Centennial placed three runners in the top 15 of the boys’ 5K race. Fourteenth-ranked Cohen Moll led the way, placing fifth in a time of 15 minutes 32 seconds.
“Cohen had an outstanding race, putting himself in good position for the first half of the race and really closed the last mile,” Fickbohm said.
Jax Alvarez and No. 20 Davis Johnson were both clocked in 15:56. They placed 14th and 15th, respectively.
“Jax and Davis finishing together is huge,” Fickbohm said. “It is fun to see them compete like they do.”
Ian Smith took 46th for the Jaguars in 16:37. Brecken Allen placed 73rd in 16:52, Levi Odson was 98th in 17:23, and Benjamin Nelson finished 111th in 17:46.
“Ian had a really nice race as he is having the most consistent season of his career,” Fickbohm said. “Brecken had a competitive race as he figures out the best way to race.”
Ankeny was led by Brett Augustine, who placed 48th in a time of 16:38. Gus Brown took 54th for the Hawks in 16:40.
“We were led once again by Brett, who ran much faster than a year ago on a much longer course and on a much hotter day, so he is way ahead of where he was last year,” Lindaman said. “Gus was again one of the top three freshmen in this race. In a meet of this caliber, that is a fantastic achievement. He is gaining so much experience each time he runs.”
Jackson Kaiser was 67th in 16:50. Isaiah Swanson placed 89th in 17:06, Logan Rolling was 96th in 17:21, Brayden Nixt placed 104th in 17:25, and Benton Schuchart finished 105th in 17:26.
“Jackson looked much better than a week ago and had a really solid day for us,” Lindaman said. “I know Isaiah did not have the race he wanted, but still showed a ton of improvement from last year’s meet to this year. This was the best race I have seen from Logan, so hopefully he continues to get better each race. Brayden and Benton did a really nice job of keeping the other guys close so we could have such a small spread.”
Top-ranked Jaden Merrick of Cedar Falls won the race in 14:56. He finished 4 seconds ahead of No. 5 Preston Johnson of Marshalltown.
In the girls’ race, No. 5 Charlee Gall of Cedar Falls easily won in a time of 17:35. She finished 31 seconds ahead of Piper Messerly of Dallas Center-Grimes.
No. 2 Makenna Madetzke placed sixth to lead the Hawkettes. She was clocked in 18:50.
Ainsley Kiene took 46th in 20:29. Ivy Wiegand placed 49th in 20:40, Ella Schulz was 63rd in 21:04, Vanessa Wise took 75th in 21:30, and Isabella Sullivan finished 83rd in 21:59.
“The overall team score doesn’t show it, but we are making progress individually and as a team,” Jumper said. “We toke a small step forward in the meet and are hoping our small steps forward each day will lead to big improvements by the time we get to districts.”
The Centennial boys’ team will compete in the Tom Karpan Invitational on Tuesday at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School. Both Ankeny squads will head to Pella on Sept. 20 for the Heartland Classic at Central College.