The conditions were brutal for the 58th Kirk Schmaltz Invitational cross country meet on Thursday in Ames.
The 90-degree temperatures and high humidity didn’t seem to bother the Ankeny Centennial girls’ team, though.
The top-ranked Jaguars easily won the team title on the Iowa State course with 57 points, finishing 23 points ahead of No. 2 Waukee Northwest. They defeated the defending state champion Wolves for the second time in two weeks.
“Our girls came prepared physically and mentally,” said Centennial girls’ coach Eric Cogdill. “We know several schools shifted to early morning practices (this week) to beat the heat, but we aimed to stick to our routine as best we could and shifted our practices to later in the evening. So, our girls were more heat acclimated and they preserved their sleep schedules. Not only was that a physical boost but again a mental one as that adaptation was another thing we talked about. And, of course, the efforts of the girls to show up all summer long to get prepared is showing through as well.”
Ankeny, meanwhile, placed eighth in the 15-team field. The Hawkettes finished with 239 points.
“I liked how our girls went out and competed today despite some tough conditions,” said Ankeny girls’ coach Josh Einertson. “Any day we get to race against the best teams in the state is a good day, and I’m really proud of how they handled the heat.”
In the boys’ division, No. 16 Ankeny placed third among 19 teams with 148 points. No. 3 Dallas Center-Grimes captured the team crown with 65 points, finishing 33 points ahead of No. 4 Waukee.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with what we saw from this young team for an early season meet,” said Ankeny boys’ coach Jon Lindaman. “The conditions were certainly less than ideal with the heat and a long course, but our kids answered the call when we asked them to focus on competing and staying active throughout the race. We ran with a lot of toughness and grit, but I think there is still a lot of room for us to be better. We just need to stay hungry and learn something from each time we race.”
No. 12 Centennial placed fifth in the boys’ division with 179 points. The Jaguars had defeated Ankeny in last week’s Early Bird Invitational at DMACC, where senior Jax Alvarez raced to a victory in 15 minutes 53 seconds.
On Thursday, Alvarez–the No. 5 runner in Class 4A–suffered a mishap early in the race and did not finish.
“I thought the team competed well,” said Centennial boys’ coach Chad Fickbohm. “It would’ve been nice to see where Jax would’ve finished. He got spiked and his shoe came off, so it was probably smart to not try to race two miles without a shoe.”
Prior to the meet, Cogdill told the Centennial girls to worry more about their competition than their times.
“We reminded the girls multiple times this week to ignore the clock and to ignore their watches because on a day like today, those numbers will only lead to disappointment,” he said. “Instead, we encouraged them to focus on their race plans and aim to beat somebody new today that beat them a week ago. This gave them some freedom to measure success in a different way and to shift their focus.
“So after warmups, when they all realized that Iowa State had painted the course differently this year which added an additional five percent in course length, there was no panic or distraction. Instead, it just gave them further freedom from the clock,” he added.
Evelyn Moeller of Mount Vernon-Lisbon, the top-ranked runner in Class 3A, won the girls’ race in a time of 18:36. She edged Emmy Stubbendeck of Northwest, the No. 2 runner in Class 4A, by 5 seconds.
Centennial got top-five finishes from No. 4 Rebecca Flick and No. 6 Natalie Cogdill. Flick placed fourth in 19:14, and Cogdill finished fifth in 19:31.
“I felt really good,” said Flick. “The pace was about what I thought it would be. We started out a little fast, but that’s what I was expecting. All my teammates were cheering me on, and all the parents were supporting us by giving us water.”
No. 9 Ellie Blevins placed 12th for the Jaguars in 20:27. Sammi Maile took 17th in 20:54, Trinity Klingensmith was 19th in 20:57, Zoey Bogseth placed 28th in 21:25, and Madi Hames finished 31st in 21:30.
“We need to give credit to our parents and non-racing teammates who were out in force handing off water bottles for our runners to pour on themselves and preparing wet, cooling towels before the race to help keep core body temps down,” Cogdill said. “It was truly a total team effort and a special moment where those not competing impacted the outcome in a positive way.”
Mia Heim led Ankeny with a 21st-place finish. She was clocked in 21:03.
Aubrey Young placed 49th for the Hawkettes in 22:25. Vanessa Wise took 59th in 22:50, Maria Owen was 63rd in 23:00, Piper Conklin placed 83rd in 23:50, Elin Alber was 114th in 24:34, and Clara Huber finished 118th in 24:50.
“With how young we are, we just need opportunities to get out there and compete and learn how to race!” Einertson said. “I was really happy with how a handful of our varsity and JV girls handled their race plans. Mia and a few of our JV runners did have some PRs today in the heat so that was awesome to see too! We are kind of throwing our young ones to the wolves a little bit early, but they continue to be excited to have the opportunity and I’m just proud of them for going out there and not backing down.”
Preston Johnson of Marshalltown, the No. 2 runner in Class 4A, pulled away from the field to win the boys’ race in 16:13. Henry Hansen of Mason City, the No. 8 runner in Class 3A, was the runner-up in 16:28.
Centennial got a seventh-place finish from No. 20 Brecken Allen. He posted a time of 16:56.
“I felt good going into it,” Allen said. “It was just a little hot, but overall I felt good about it. I haven’t ran that much, but this was definitely one of the hottest days I’ve ever ran in. Our coaches told us before if we weren’t feeling good to just drop out.”
Allen was followed closely by No. 27 Gus Brown of Ankeny. He placed eighth in 16:58.
The Hawks also got top-20 finishes from Isaiah Swanson and Jack Vonnahme. Swanson took 17th in 17:24, and Vonnahme was 18th in 17:27.
“Gus and Jack were fantastic and are already racing like veterans, and both looked really solid in Ames,” Lindaman said. “I’m really excited to see what these guys can accomplish this season. Isaiah is starting to run with a lot of confidence, so that has been really exciting. He has worked really hard and has a ton of potential to be special.”
Centennial’s Levi Odson placed 20th in 17:30. Roman Fye was 39th in 17:44, and Noah Schneden took 45th in 17:53.
“Levi and Roman really had nice races,” Fickbohm said. “I think there’s better things to come from them. Brecken had another solid race. and Noah had a really nice race but all in all the guys competed well.”
Ankeny’s Jackson Schulz placed 53rd in 18:03. Benton Schuchart took 54th in 18:04, Cody Banks was 68th in 18:20, and Brayden Nixt finished 72nd in 18:30.
“Those four did an awesome job working together and running as a team, and we love seeing that as a coaching staff,” Lindaman said. “Benton, Cody, Brayden and Elijah (Thompson) all had really nice races, but Jackson was our star of the day stepping up to be our No. 4 runner at this meet.”
Centennial’s Maxwell Curnyn placed 71st in 18:28. Brock Fiala took 79th in 18:41, and Ben Nelson was 94th in 18:57.
“It was hard for the guys to stay focused this week with altered meet schedules in the heat, so it was nice to actually see them show up and race,” Fickbohm said. “Everybody was competing in the same conditions, so we just told them to go out and run a smart race. It was nice to get this race in so we can get focused for another big race next week at Marshalltown, which looks to be pretty warm again.”
All four of the Ankeny and Centennial teams will compete in the Bobcat Invitational on Thursday at Marshalltown Community College.
