Tuesday’s Tom Karpan Invitational at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School was expected to be a dual between the fourth-ranked Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team and No. 12 Valley.
It turned into more of a Jaguar domination.
Centennial placed all seven of its runners in the top eight and easily won the meet with 18 points. The Jaguars captured the team title for the fourth straight year.
Valley was second with 45 points. Marshalltown also competed and finished with 85 points.
“In a meet that had 10 schools represented in the JV division, we only saw two scoring teams translate over to the varsity race,” said Centennial girls’ coach Eric Cogdill. “Looking at teams’ upcoming schedules, we felt a varsity dual with Valley might be ahead of us, so that’s the race plan we put together.”
Some of the boys’ teams, including No. 5 Ankeny Centennial, also rested their varsity lineups. The Jaguars placed fourth in the boys’ division with 120 points while using a JV lineup.
Centennial’s Ellie Blevins earned her first victory of the season in the girls’ 5K race. She posted a time of 19 minutes 11 seconds.
Blevins finished 31 seconds ahead of teammate Rebecca Flick, who was the runner-up in 19:42. Those two are ranked 11th and 16th, respectively, in Class 4A.
“Ellie’s race didn’t go quite as scripted. She felt really good early and pulled away, running alone for about 2.9 of the 3.1 mile race. One might call it a little birthday present to herself,” Cogdill said. “Rebecca waited to make her move after the mile and also pulled away in the second half of the race. It was a nice relaxed effort and confidence booster for her taking (second).”
Valley’s Kate Vogel placed third in 20:07 and was followed by the rest of Centennial’s runners, who then swept the next five places to finish ahead of the Tigers’ No. 2 runner–Evelynne Gauthier.
“Our pack was dynamite,” Cogdill said. “We hoped our top seven would finish among the top 10 overall, but we did not anticipate all seven girls finishing ahead of Valley’s No. 2.”
Natalie Cogdill placed fourth for the Jaguars in 20:21. Sammi Maile took fifth in 20:23, Trinity Klingensmith placed sixth in 20:29, Piper Klingner was seventh in 20:29, and Ella Campbell finished eighth in 20:30.
“For the fourth meet in a row, we had a different girl finish in our No. 3 slot,” Cogdill said of his daughter. “That’s such an incredible opportunity ahead for this squad to have a well-connected pack running together where anyone could slide ahead late but no one is far behind.”
Klingner joined the varsity pack for the first time this season as Cogdill rested senior Kylee Patterson.
“That was something Kylee and I had planned for since June after reviewing her prior seasons. She and Greta DenHartog, who was under load management with club soccer, completed a full workout at the course instead,” Cogdill said. “Piper has trained with that group all summer and fall and had to wait for her turn in the lineup due to roster limitations. She slid right in and performed strong as expected.”
No. 20 Valley won the boys’ meet for the fourth year in a row, finishing with 21 points. No. 12 Johnston was second in the eight-team field with 56.
Marshalltown’s Carter Nunn won the race in 16:38. Thomas Limback took second in 17:05 for Valley, which took seven of the next eight places.
Blake Bybee led Centennial with a 12th-place finish. He was clocked in 18:14.
Shawn Harris placed 29th for the Jaguars in 18:59. Roman Fye took 33rd in 19:04, Isaac Porter placed 37th in 19:09, Jonas Robinson was 38th in 19:11, Luke Beecher took 44th in 19:24, and Fletcher Mohrhauser finished 47th in 19:29.
The Centennial boys’ team will compete in the Heartland Classic on Saturday at Central College in Pella.