The battle for fourth place in the boys’ Class 4A state cross country meet came down to the wire.
In the end, Ankeny Centennial senior Noah Schneden crossed the finish line just ahead of Waukee’s Melvin Nziraguhunga to give the eighth-ranked Jaguars a fourth-place finish at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge. Schneden placed 66th in the 5k race with a time of 16 minutes 34 seconds, while Nziraguhunga was clocked in 16:34.1.
Centennial finished with 151 points, a better score than it posted a year ago when the Jaguars placed third with 157. No. 5 Waukee scored 152 points.
Schneden was Centennial’s fifth scoring runner. Nziraguhunga was not a scoring runner for Waukee, but if he had finished ahead of Schneden, the two teams would have tied with 152 points–with the tiebreaker going to the Warriors.
“The plan was for the guys to execute their race, and they did,” said Centennial coach Chad Fickbohm. “They did a great job of staying mentally tough. We knew if we ran our race, we had a shot for that fourth-place finish. It really did come down to our Nos. 3, 4 and 5 guys stepping up, and Noah beating that Waukee kid at the very end.”
Centennial got off to a conservative start. The Jaguars were in eighth place with 219 points after the opening mile and still had a lot of ground to make up after the second mile, when they sat in seventh with 193.
“We talked about the race going out fast and not to panic,” Fickbohm said.
The Jaguars got huge surges from the trio of Roman Fye, Levi Odson and Schneden over the final 1.1 miles. They moved up a combined 61 spots from the time they passed the 2-mile mark to the finish.
Fye, a sophomore, placed 40th in a time of 16:22.2. Odson, a senior, took 51st in 16:26.5.
Schneden moved up 27 spots, Odson moved up 21, and Fye moved up 13.
“We couldn’t be more proud of this group,” Fickbohm said. “It’s a really nice way to end the season and for many of them to end their careers.”
Centennial was led by two other seniors, Jax Alvarez and Brecken Allen. Alvarez placed ninth in a time of 15:26.8 to earn a spot on the awards podium.
“The team did something special, and I couldn’t be more proud of how we went about this season,” said Alvarez. “There were a lot of difficult moments, but we knew that we were a top-five team.”
Top-ranked Dowling Catholic captured the team title with 70 points. No. 2 Cedar Falls was the runner-up with 93, edging No. 3 Iowa City Liberty by one point.
Third-ranked Preston Johnson of Marshalltown pulled away from the field to win the race in an all-time Iowa best of 14:40.2. He finished about 13 seconds ahead of No. 4 Keegan Decker of Liberty.
The No. 7 Alvarez was part of a lead pack of six runners early on. He ran the opening mile in 4:41.5, putting him within 2 seconds of Johnson, No. 2 Jack Crossland of Johnston, Decker, No. 1 Kuma Gutema of Sioux City North and No. 6 Andrew Heden of Bettendorf.
“The race unfolded exactly how I thought it would besides the fact that I expected more people to go out with the lead pack,” Alvarez said. “Nobody really challenged a spot besides me. And that’s fine, I made it hurt and ran the way I wanted to race so I’m happy with it.”
The foursome of Johnson, Crossland, Gutema and Decker ran the second mile in about 4:38, putting some distance between themselves and the rest of the field. Heden was 4 seconds behind in fifth place, while Alvarez was another 21 seconds back even though he remained in sixth.
Alvarez dropped a few spots in the final 1.1 miles, but held on for a top-10 finish.
“Jax ran a really good race with that lead pack hanging on,” Fickbohm said. “And then he was in no man’s land for a little bit so he did a lot of work, but he finished really strong.”
The No. 23 Allen was also a contender for a podium finish early on. He was in 14th place after running the opening mile in 4:48.1.
Allen dropped to 24th after the second mile and eventually placed 39th in 16:21.8, finishing .4 seconds ahead of the hard-charging Fye.
“Brecken maybe went out a little hot, but he still finished well,” Fickbohm said.
Rounding out Centennial’s lineup were seniors Ben Nelson and Bennett Welcher. Nelson placed 100th in a time of 16:52.5, while Welcher finished 103rd in 16:55.2.
Nelson moved up 10 spots in the final 1.1 miles, passing Welcher along the way.
“Those guys ran really good races, too,” Fickbohm said.
