The Ankeny Centennial girls’ cross country team bounced back with a vengeance.
After suffering its first loss of the season on Thursday, the fourth-ranked Jaguars rebounded on Tuesday by dominating the Rich Engel Classic at Birdsall Park in Cedar Falls.
Centennial placed all seven of its runners among the top 14 finishers and easily captured the team title with 36 points. No. 3 Cedar Falls was second in the 11-team field with 79 points, followed by No. 17 Western Dubuque with 88.
Cedar Falls was one of the three teams that defeated the Jaguars last week at the Bobcat Invitational in Marshalltown.
“We were treated to nice weather on a soggy, challenging course,” said Centennial coach Eric Cogdill. “There were lots of turns, several small rises and drops, as well as two extended hill climbs. While there were fewer ranked teams than our meets in recent weeks, we still had another exciting race with eight of the top-20 ranked Class 4A girls in Iowa competing.”
Cedar Falls star Charlee Gall won the 5k race in a time of 18 minutes 18 seconds. The top-ranked Gall finished about 10 seconds ahead of the Centennial duo of Natalie Cogdill and Rebecca Flick.
The sixth-ranked Cogdill and No. 5 Flick crossed the finish line almost simultaneously. Cogdill was the runner-up in 18:27.80, while Flick took third in 18:27.81.
The top three finishers all broke the previous course record held by Keelee Leitzen of Dubuque Hempstead, a former state champion and a four-time top-eight finisher at the state meet.
“Through the first mile, those top competitors ran in an uncomfortable, tightly-packed group all within 1 second of one another,” Cogdill said. “At the mile, a long hill climb served to string them out a little and after clearing the crest, Becci and Natalie pushed to the front. That push split off the top four runners–the two Jaguars along with Charlee and Isabel Spradling (of Des Moines Roosevelt). Charlee then made the decisive move at the top of the same hill on the second loop with 0.3 miles to go.
“Following a weekend of soccer and a quick turn to a Tuesday race, Becci’s quadriceps bugged her going down that final hill. Otherwise, I believe she could have challenged Charlee to the finish line,” he added.
No. 19 Ellie Blevins placed eighth for the Jaguars. She was clocked in 19:11.
“It was nice to have Ellie back in the lineup as she provided a spark to the squad and an intensity that we believed we would upset Cedar Falls on their home course a week after they got us at Marshalltown,” Cogdill said. “She went out with determination sticking to that hard opening pace and maintained her top-20 ranking by finishing eighth well clear of the ninth-place finisher.”
Centennial’s other four runners finished just outside the top 10, placing 11th through 14th. Piper Klingner led the pack with a time of 19:58 and was followed by Trinity Klingensmith (20:11), Zoey Bogseth (20:13) and Madi Hames (20:29).
“We knew the chase pack was going to be filled with talented runners from Cedar Falls, our second pack, and the top Western Dubuque runners,” Cogdill said. “We challenged our pack to out-compete the other two groups and for the first time this season, all of them went out together and they were within 5 seconds of one another just before the 2-mile mark. That group dynamic paid off nicely with our girls rising to the top of the second wave of runners.”
Centennial entered 12 girls in the varsity race. Sammi Maile placed 28th for the Jaguars in 21:18, Greer Gasperi was 32nd in 21:35, Genevieve Johnson took 36th in 21:42, Cate Benning was 39th in 21:54, and Rowan Cox finished 46th in 22:12.
Centennial will now have a break before competing in a prestigious meet on Sept. 25 at Columbia, Mo.
“We are now excited for a longer block of training and recovery before the squad splits next week with our top group heading to the Gans Creek Classic to compete on last year’s NCAA Division I championship course,” Cogdill said.