The Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team was looking to earn a spot on the awards podium for only the second time in school history.
The sixth-ranked Jaguars settled for a school record instead.
Centennial placed fifth in the Class 4A state meet on Saturday at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge. The Jaguars scored 136 points, five fewer than they did in 2020 when they placed third for the highest finish in school history.
“Our team went out there and truly performed,” said Centennial junior Ellie Blevins. “We have a younger team, and these girls were so nervous before the race. I just told them, ‘Go out there and be yourself. That’s really all you can do.’ And they really outperformed themselves. They truly have no fear. They don’t set limits on themselves, and they know what they can do.”
Second-ranked Waukee Northwest captured its first state title with 67 points. No. 1 Pleasant Valley, the defending champion, took second with 103.
No. 3 Johnston scored 113 points to edge No. 4 Dallas Center-Grimes by one point for the third-place trophy.
“I’m so proud (of this team),” said Centennial coach Eric Cogdilll. “It’s just such a fun group and a young group. It’s just built to last, the way that they worked hard together and focused and they all dialed in and had their goals and stuck to their plans and had confidence in each other. It was so fun.”
Piper Messerly of Dallas Center-Grimes won the 5K race with a time of 17 minutes 42 seconds to defend her title. She finished 7 seconds ahead of Northwest’s Laney Sundet.
Blevins led the way for Centennial with an eighth-place finish. It marked the sixth straight year that the Jaguars put at least one girl on the podium and the fifth consecutive season that they had a top-10 finisher.
“I honestly wasn’t thinking about this race too much,” Blevins said. “I hate getting in my own head about races–that is obviously the hardest part of the sport. It unfolded with the top group going out, and I was completely prepared for the race to string out but it didn’t string out as much as I thought it would. Being in that pack really helped me a lot. The energy of this race is just so overwhelming. It kind of helps to drown out all the pain that you’re feeling in your legs. Whenever the group would surge, you would just surge right along with them. It’s just a great group pushing each other.”
Blevins crossed the finish line in a time of 18:02.6.
“My A+ goal that my coach gave me before the race was top 10. If I just had a normal day, I would have been top 20,” said Blevins, who was ranked 14th going into the race. “So I was just super happy with my finish. Obviously, I was pretty shocked as soon as I finished and saw my time. The last time I saw that was at the Ames meet, and that’s a little bit of a shorter course. I was very, very happy with it.”
Blevins was followed closely by teammate Rebecca Flick, who joined her on the awards podium by placing 14th. The freshman was clocked in 18:13.5, finishing less than a second behind Ankeny’s Makenna Madetzke.
“I felt really good,” said Flick. “This whole race I was thinking to catch the girl in front of me so that I can (get on the podium).”
It was the state meet debut for Flick and three of her teammates.
“I started out a little fast because I got excited,” Flick said. “Then I took a couple seconds to relax and I kept going.”
This was the second season in a row that the Jaguars placed two runners among the top 15 finishers. Last year, Anika Mohrhauser was the runner-up while Haley Hveem finished 13th.
“For Ellie and Rebecca to come out and take a spot on the deck, with Ellie being a junior and she improved by over a minute every race all season long,” Cogdill said. “And for Rebecca to just come in and run like a naturally-gifted athlete, she stayed patient and calm and collected and did what she needed to do out there.”
The Jaguars also got top-35 finishes from two other freshmen. Natalie Cogdill placed 31st in a time of 19:04.9, and Sammi Maile was 35th in 19:09.4.
“They just touched above their ceiling,” coach Cogdill said of his daughter and Maile. “We’re talking A++ goals, and they hit them.”
Sophomore Trinity Klingensmith was Centennial’s fifth scoring runner. She took 71st in 19:50.3.
“They did so well,” Flick said of her teammates. “I’m so proud of everybody. Ellie did so great–she did better than anybody could have imagined. I’m so proud of them.”
Senior Kylee Patterson closed out her career with a 79th-place finish. She posted a time of 19:58.0.
Patterson crossed the finish line just ahead of teammate Piper Klingner. The freshman took 80th in a field of 130 runners in 19:58.5.
“Kylee went under 20 minutes, and she’s never been under 20 at state before,” Cogdill said. “In her last race ever, she was just such a mom to those four freshmen and I’m so proud of her. And to put all 7 under 20 minutes, we’ve never done that before either. It was just a great day.”
