It’s already been a successful fall for the Ankeny Centennial boys’ cross country team.
Wednesday’s CIML Conference meet at Johnston was just another sign of the Jaguars’ progress this season.
Ninth-ranked Centennial placed fourth in the nine-team field with 105 points. The Jaguars had finished eighth, seventh and sixth in the previous CIML meets since the league went to its current configuration in 2022.
“It was a good night for us, especially without Davis (Johnson),” said Centennial coach Chad Fickbohm. “He’s just a little under the weather again, but we had really nice races from Cohen (Moll), Jax (Alvarez) and a breakthrough race for Brecken (Allen). He ran great.”
No. 7 Johnston captured the team title with 61 points, edging No. 11 Waukee Northwest by four points. No. 13 Dowling Catholic, last year’s champion, took third with 85 points.
Ankeny finished in seventh place with 162.
Johnston’s Jack Crossland pulled away from the field to win the 5K race in a time of 14 minutes 59.6 seconds. He is the No. 5-ranked runner in Class 4A.
The No. 17 Moll placed second in 15:30. The No. 27 Alvarez took eighth in 15:59.6 and joined Moll in earning first-team all-conference honors.
Allen contributed a 12th-place finish in 16:12. He earned second-team honors.
“I am very happy with how our team ran,” Moll said. “Unfortunately, we were missing Davis–who is consistently in our top three this season–and that definitely had an effect on our results. On the other hand, Brecken had a great race and was able to easily fill in the role as our No. 3 guy.”
Ankeny was led by Isaiah Smith. He placed seventh in a time of 15:50 to earn first-team all-conference honors for the second straight year.
Jack Behrens placed 40th for the Jaguars in 16:49. Ian Smith was the team’s other scoring runner, finishing 47th in 17:01.
Behrens was running his second race after missing the previous three meets.
“It’s nice seeing Jack gaining his fitness back race by race,” Moll said. “Assuming Davis is back and healthy, these factors give us a lot of confidence leading into the championship season seeing that the pieces are starting to fall into place.”
Centennial’s Levi Odson placed 57th in 17:16. Benjamin Nelson finished 64th in 17:38.
“This is a pretty fun group of kids,” Fickbohm said. “They like to compete, and this is the type of racing that gives everybody confidence going forward.”
Brett Augustine took 27th for the Hawks in 16:31. Logan Rolling placed 38th in 16:47, Benton Schuchart was 45th in 16:58, Jackson Kaiser placed 53rd in 17:08, Brayden Nixt was 54th in 17:11, and Cody Banks finished 58th in 17:21.
Both Ankeny and Centennial will now prepare for next week’s Class 4A state qualifying meets.
The Jaguars will travel to the Council Bluffs Lincoln site on Wednesday. They are seeking their fourth trip to the state meet in the last six seasons.
No. 4 Dallas Center-Grimes and No. 10 Norwalk will be among the other teams in the field.
“We’re excited for next week,” Fickbohm said.
Ankeny will go to the Marshalltown site. The Hawks are looking to qualify for the fifth consecutive year, but it won’t be an easy task.
No. 2 Cedar Falls is one of four ranked teams in the field. The others are Waukee Northwest, No. 15 Dubuque Hempstead and No. 16 Waukee.