The top-ranked Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team suffered its first loss of the season on Thursday.
After winning their first two meets, the Jaguars placed fourth among 17 teams in the Bobcat Invitational at Marshalltown Community College. They finished with 115 points.
No. 3 Johnston scored 76 points and captured the title for the fourth straight year. No. 2 Waukee Northwest was second with 96, and No. 5 Cedar Falls took third with 107.
“As usual, the competition at the Bobcat Invite did not disappoint,” said Centennial girls’ coach Eric Cogdill. “No fewer than 11 girls’ teams who competed today will eventually be among the 15 who qualify for the state meet in seven weeks, and 18 of the top 25 individuals (in the state) also raced.”
No. 20 Ankeny placed 13th in the girls’ division. The Hawkettes finished with 309 points.
“It was a fast day on the course with a lot of good competition,” said Ankeny girls’ coach Josh Einertson. “I’m really happy with how our girls went out and ran today.”
In the boys’ division, No. 13 Centennial placed 10th in the 24-team field. The Jaguars scored 307 points.
Centennial competed without two of its top five runners.
“Brecken Allen and Noah Schneden were both battling sickness,” said Centennial boys’ coach Chad Fickbohm.
No. 11 Ankeny finished 15th with 361 points. The Hawks were without freshman Jack Vonnahme, their No. 3 runner at the first two meets.
“The results were disappointing to say the least, but it was not from lack of effort from our guys,” said Ankeny boys’ coach Jon Lindaman. “We made a last-minute decision to sit Jack and paired with a couple guys not having the races they wanted, our score added up pretty quickly. Our team will learn from this, and we will be right back in the mix in no time.”
No. 2 Cedar Falls claimed the boys’ crown with 107 points. No. 1 Dowling Catholic was the runner-up with 116.
Like the two boys’ teams, the Centennial girls’ squad was also not at full strength. The Jaguars competed without senior Ellie Blevins, their No. 3 runner who is ranked 18th in Class 4A.
“We missed Ellie in the race, but she provided great leadership in the team circle and put on roughly seven miles of running supporting the team in the hardest corner of the course across all three divisions of races,” Cogdill said.
Centennial was again led by the duo of No. 5 Rebecca Flick and No. 7 Natalie Cogdill. Flick placed fifth in a time of 18 minutes 33 seconds, while Cogdill took sixth in 18:42.
“Becci and Natalie worked together terrifically and made some strong movement on the final, challenging stretch of hills to overtake a pair of state medalists from last spring’s 3,000 on the track,” coach Cogdill said. “Natalie broke the 19-minute barrier for the first time which has been a target of hers since just missing it at conference a year ago.”
The highlight for Ankeny was the performance of freshman Mia Heim. She earned a top-25 finish, placing 23rd in a field of 116 runners with a time of 19:53.
“It was a beautiful day to run,” Einertson said. “Huge shoutout to Mia Heim for breaking that 20 minute barrier.”
Heim was followed closely by Centennial’s Piper Klingner, who placed 27th in 19:59. Zoey Bogseth took 36th for the Jaguars in 20:24, Trinity Klingensmith was 41st in 20:32, Madi Hames placed 42nd in 20:35, and Sammi Maile finished 75th in 21:35.
“A big highlight of the night was Piper finishing as the third Jaguar,” Cogdill said. “Last week, she ran with Sammi and Trinity at Ames through the first 2.5 miles before falling off hard during the final stretch and just outside our top seven. She was the first girl I found after the Ames race and reassured her that sometimes you have to go through it before you can go do it; so we urged her to try the exact same pack running strategy with them this week.
“Collectively having Piper, Trinity and Sammi all capable of placing high from the 4-5-6 slot is one thing that has historically been hard to come by for any team. Then, when one has a tough day, the others can cover it.
“And, our two varsity freshmen (Bogseth and Hames) also ran spectacular races, each placing 10 spots higher than the meet forecast tool had them while breaking the 21-minute barrier for the first time. They have worked together very well each of the past two weeks and soon we hope to see them work with the other three girls in our second pack,” he added.
Ankeny’s Aubrey Young placed 50th in 20:50. Vanessa Wise took 74th for the Hawkettes in 21:35, Maria Owen was 76th in 21:36, Piper Conklin placed 89th in 22:17, Isabella Sullivan was 99th in 22:46, and Annabel Maceda finished 109th in 23:44.
“From the 9/10 race to the varsity, all of our groups had personal bests or season bests,” Einertson said.
No. 3 Charlee Gall of Cedar Falls won the girls’ race in a time of 17:51. She finished 8 seconds ahead of No. 4 Emmy Stubbendeck of Northwest.
No. 1 Keegan Decker of Iowa City Liberty raced to a victory in the boys’ race, posting a time of 15:18. No. 5 Preston Johnson of Marshalltown was the runner-up in 15:23.
No. 8 Jax Alvarez of Centennial earned a top-five finish in a field of 167 runners. He placed fifth in 15:52.
“That was a nice race from Jax,” Fickbohm said. “He finished where we felt he would tonight knowing there is more to come from him.”
No. 25 Gus Brown of Ankeny nearly earned a top-10 finish. He placed 11th in 16:07.
“Gus keeps getting better every time he runs, and he took another big jump at this meet,” Lindaman said. “Finishing just outside the top 10 in this field is pretty impressive. I love where he is at both physically and mentally right now. He is definitely an ascending runner right now at the state level. As long as he keeps learning from every race, he will continue to improve throughout the season.”
Centennial’s Levi Odson placed 47th in 16:45. Roman Fye took 50th for the Jaguars in 16:49, Ben Nelson was 99th in 17:39, Bennett Welcher placed 110th in 17:50, and Shawn Harris finished 131st in 18:21.
“Levi and Roman had confidence-building races getting closer to what we know they will be able to run at the end of the season,” Fickbohm said.
Ankeny’s Cody Banks placed 72nd in 17:14. Jackson Schulz took 84th for the Hawks in 17:26, Benton Schuchart was 93rd in 17:33, Isaiah Swanson took 105th in 17:45, Elijah Thompson was 107th in 17:47, and Brayden Nixt finished 126th in 18:14.
“This was a big-time meet, and we just have to get out a bit more aggressively,” Lindaman said. “If you sit back in a competitive race like this, it is going to be hard to make up ground in the back half of the race. We had some good individual performances, but we were nowhere near where we wanted to be in the team score. I need to do a better job of having the boys prepared for race day.”
The Centennial boys’ team will compete in the Tom Karpan Invitational on Tuesday at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School. The Jaguars will then head to Pella on Saturday for the Heartland Classic at Central College, where they will be joined by both Ankeny squads.
The Centennial girls’ team will travel to Cedar Falls on Thursday for the Rich Engel Classic at Birdsall Park.