Many of the girls’ cross country teams competing in the Fort Dodge Invitational on Thursday will likely be back at Lakeside Golf Course on Nov. 1 for the Class 4A state meet.
It provided a good test run for the fourth-ranked Ankeny Centennial squad, which placed second among 25 teams with 90 points. No. 3 Waukee Northwest captured the team title with 57 points.
“It will take a dynamite day from the whole squad to find ourselves in the top three at state,” said Centennial coach Eric Cogdill. “We got a glimpse of that competition and level of performance (Thursday) in a meet that serves as a state meet preview. Ten of the top 16 ranked 4A girls’ teams and 18 of the top 30 4A individuals were in the race on the state meet course.”
Ankeny was also among the teams in the field. The Hawkettes placed 11th with 310 points.
“Our team ran well,” said Ankeny coach TJ Jumper. “Several girls had course PRs or lifetime PRs. We are trending in the right direction.”
No. 7 Dallas Center-Grimes placed third with 115 points. No. 2 Johnston, the two-time defending champion, was fourth with 146.
“We ran without Ella Campbell, who picked up a bug this week and is already antsy to race next week,” Cogdill said. “Similarly, Johnston was without a couple runners which may have helped us pick up the runner-up finish, but running the results with those missing Johnston runners would not have bumped us out of second (place). And, congrats to Waukee Northwest–they were as good as any team we have ever seen compete at Fort Dodge.”
Piper Messerly, the No. 3 runner in Class 4A, won the 5K race with a time of 18:11. She finished 8 seconds ahead of Northwest’s Laney Sundet.
Ankeny’s Makenna Madetzke ran among the leaders the whole way along with the Centennial duo of Ellie Blevins and Rebecca Flick. Madetzke placed third in 18:21 in her first race since Sept. 20.
“There was a pretty large lead pack for most of the race,” said Madetzke. “Piper made a strong move in the last mile, and I lost a bit of ground there. But overall, it felt really good to be back racing after a couple weeks off!”
The seventh-ranked Blevins placed fourth for the Jaguars in 18:23. The No. 9 Flick was fifth in 18:34.
“Ellie and Rebecca led us off with terrific races to place two runners in the top five,” Cogdill said. “That was a huge confidence boost for both as they had previously ran in an elite field at the Ames meet, finishing 2-3, so replicating that effort reinforced that they belong among the state’s elite runners.”
Centennial’s Natalie Cogdill placed 18th in 19:18. Kylee Patterson took 29th in 19:35, Trinity Klingensmith was 34th in 19:46, Sammi Maile took 66th in 20:20, and Piper Klingner finished 79th in 20:40.
“We aimed to have our pack of five girls stick together as long as possible on a pace and place plan that the girls trusted Natalie to monitor and lead them through,” Cogdill said. “We were targeting a path to stretch ourselves into finishing around 35th-40th place for the pack. Natalie and Sammi kept moving up throughout the race until they were in the top 25 with just 25 percent of the race to go. Natalie ended up 18th and jumped from being projected 60th at state to now being listed 31st. Similarly, Kylee and Trinity held firm with the group and they too finished above their stretch targets.
“Sammi was stride for stride with Natalie through 2.3 miles before (dropping back). That was atypical for her as she has been very consistent all season long, and she has put it past her and already looked great on her run (Friday). Piper also started with that pack as she had finished among those girls at the Valley meet a few weeks ago using a different strategy. We will bring her back to the prior race plan next week at the conference meet,” he added.
Greta DenHartog placed 86th for the Jaguars in 20:46, while Cate Benning took 90th in 20:48 and ran a personal best along with DenHartog. Brielle Guerra finished 113th in 21:16 in her first varsity race.
Ankeny’s Ainsley Kiene placed 56th in 20:13. Ivy Wiegand took 74th for the Hawkettes in 20:33, Ella Schulz was 88th in 20:47, Reagan Prendergast placed 104th in 21:08, Vanessa Wise was 107th in 21:11, Isabella Sullivan took 127th in 21:38, Elin Alber finished 173rd in 22:48, and Jera Harris was 198th in 23:54.
“It was a great effort, and we have been building confidence and it showed as we have some athletes who now know they can run faster and PR in the next couple of weeks,” Jumper said.
Both teams will head to Johnston on Wednesday for the CIML Conference meet.