A showdown between the top two girls’ cross country teams in Class 4A lived up to the hype.
Second-ranked Ankeny Centennial opened its season on Tuesday by edging No. 1 Waukee Northwest to win the Jaguar Early Bird Invitational at DMACC. The Jaguars scored 41 points when the results of the two races were merged, while Northwest–the defending state champion–finished with 42.
“My team did really well today. I’m super proud of everybody,” said Centennial senior Ellie Blevins, who placed second in the 11/12 race and finished fifth overall. “The 9/10 race was really fun to watch today. Rebecca (Flick) and Natalie (Cogdill) are amazing competitors together, and I’m really excited to join them next week for that race in Ames because they’re fun to compete with. They’re both very aggressive runners.”
Ankeny, meanwhile, placed sixth in the six-team field with 166 points. The Hawkettes made their debut under new head coach Josh Einertson.
“They did great,” Einertson said. “The goal out here was just to get them out and race, have fun, compete, run against people that aren’t themselves. I thought they did awesome. They crushed it.”
Centennial also won the 9/10 division with 29 points. The Jaguars placed five runners in the top 10 of that race.
Northwest sophomore Emmy Stubbendeck won the overall title by posting a time of 18 minutes 9 seconds in the 9/10 race. Flick was the runner-up in 18:20, while Cogdill took third overall in 19:12.
“We expected (Stubbendeck) to be out front since she had such a good track season leading up to this,” Flick said.
The Centennial duo ran with Stubbendeck during the early part of the race.
“I think we started a little fast,” Flick said. “I was a little excited to finally have a teammate to run with since Natalie has been doing so well this summer.”
Centennial’s Sammy Maile placed sixth in the 9/10 race in 20:41. Piper Klingner was eighth in 21:00, and Zoey Bogseth finished 10th in 21:18.
Mia Heim led Ankeny with a 13th-place finish. She was clocked in 21:32.
Maria Owen took 19th for the Hawkettes in 21:55. Aubrey Young placed 20th in 21:58, Piper Conklin was 34th in 23:42, and Clara Huber finished 43rd in 24:37.
“We tried a couple of things with some of our girls,” Einertson said. “We got out a little too hot, but that’s ok. We had to learn. We’re going to be really young, so we got to see where some of these girls are at. Some of them have never raced a 5k before. It’s a whole different experience for them.”
Blevins posted a time of 19:27 in the 11/12 race. She finished about 5 seconds behind the winner–Olive DeRocher of Norwalk.
“When it strung out with just a few girls in the front, I decided to try for it,” Blevins said. “I didn’t want to give too much at the finish, and it ended up being a pretty quick finish. It was a fun race overall.”
The Jaguars also got a top-10 finish in that race from Trinity Klingensmith. She placed 10th in 20:44.
Ankeny’s Vanessa Wise took 16th in 21:33. Annabel Maceda finished 41st in 24:24.
Northwest placed six runners in the top 12 of the 11/12 race.
“The CIML–anywhere you look and any meet you go to–you’re going to have the top dogs there,” Einertson said. “And that’s great. They make us better too.”
Both Ankeny and Centennial will compete in the Kirk Schmaltz Invitational on Sept. 3 at Ames.
“We kind of went into this race as a check just to see where we’re at, because obviously all the competition will be next week at Ames,” Blevins said.