Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – The difference between good and great can be just a little extra.

Kolby Greiner spent the summer doing the extra work.

The West High junior trained for 10K races during the offseason rather than the standard 5K distance run in high school cross country.

He even ran a 10K or two as preparation.

“This summer I’ve been doing a lot of 10K training,” Greiner said. “My coach believes that if we train for high stuff like a 10K that anything lower than that is easy.”

Greiner made things look plenty easy on Saturday morning cruising to the individual title at the 33rd Cedar Rapids Prairie Invitational.

The top-ranked runner in Class 4A, Greiner outdistanced a strong field to win the title in 16:06, 41 seconds faster than runner-up Moe Smith of Waukee.

“I tell myself that if I can do a 10K then coming down to a 5K is easy money,” Greiner said. “We’ve just been getting into some speed work and 5K training.”

 

Greiner didn’t waste any time separating himself from the field on Saturday.

He built a solid lead by the mile mark and steadily pulled away.

“Out in what we can the sleeper zone, we call it, there was no one out there,” Greiner said. “I kind of wish I had more competition because I really like working off other people. I don’t like going out on my own a lot.”

With temperatures in the mid 60s with little to no wind on Saturday Greiner lowered his time by 40 seconds from a year ago at the season-opening meet.

“At the school waiting for the bus it 60 degrees with no wind,” Greiner said. “I looked at the wind on my weather app and it was two miles per hour and I said ‘it’s going to be a good day’.”

Greiner was 46th at the state meet as a freshman and jumped to 11th at the 4A state meet last October.

He has much bigger plans for this fall.

“He had a great summer of training and he has high goal for himself,” West High coach Brian Martz said. “That’s what you expect from somebody that has a championship attitude like he has.”  

Greiner’s win helped eighth-ranked West High to a fourth-place team finish in a field that featured 11 ranked teams.

Class 4A No. 10 Linn-Mar won the team title with 53 points, 12 points in front of third-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie.

No. 13 Waukee was third with 91 points and West High was fourth with 139.

 “This meet has grown over the years and they’ve built it up,” Martz said. “We have some good competition in all classes that our here and for us it’s about routines. We are learning routines today. That’s what we are focusing on right now.”

Class 3A No. 13 Clear Creek Amana had a strong showing on Saturday, finishing 12th with 309.

The Clippers were fourth among non-4A teams behind 3A top-ranked Mount Vernon/Lisbon, No. 7 Cedar Rapids Xavier and 2A top-ranked Mid-Prairie.

“I’m jacked,” Clear Creek Amana coach Ben Robison said. “Our front two ran lights out, we had a huge performance from a sophomore Jack Sexton. He could not have run any better than he did. If we can just get our number five and our number four closer together we are going to be golden.”

Sophomore Nick O’Connor finished 34th in a time of 17:47 to lead Clear Creek Amana and freshman Brandon Barker was 39th in 17:55.

O’Connor was eighth and Barker ninth among non-4A competitors.

“It was great competition, there are great teams in 4A here and that’s fun to compete against those guys,” O’Connor said. “It helps running against great competition, it makes you improve.”

Class 3A No. 13 Solon finished ninth in the girls race and was fourth among 2A and 3A squads.

Freshman Kiersten Conway finished 36th in a time of 21:44 to lead the Spartans while senior Sophie Nicol was 42nd in 22:03.

Kaylie Barker placed 26th in 21:21 for Clear Creek Amana as the Clippers finished 19th as a team with 528 points.

Barker posted the 11th fastest time among non-4A competitors in the girls race.

Cedar Rapids Prairie Invite

Boys Results

Team results – 1. Linn-Mar 53; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 65; 3. Waukee 91; 4. West High 139; 5. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 160; 6. Cedar Falls 208; 7. Cedar Rapids Washington 240; 8. Cedar Rapids Xavier 254; 9. Mount Vernon/Lisbon 267; 10. Mid-Prairie 291; 11. Davenport West 306; 12. Clear Creek Amana 309; 13. Western Dubuque 333; 14. Anamosa 336; 15. Muscatine 367; 16. Marion 390; 17. Mason City 404; 18. Monticello 418; 19. Fort Madison 477; 20. Solon 597; 21. Maquoketa 684.

Individual Results – 1. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 16:06; 2. Moe Smith (WAU) 16:47; 3. Dylan Dolezal (LM) 16:56; 4. Max Laue (CRP) 16:56; 5. Colin Johnston (LM) 16:58; 6. Brandon Conrad (CF) 17:02; 7. Robert Laue (CRP) 17:02; 8. Andrew Wright (DW) 17:05; 9. Max Locher (CRW) 17:07; 10. Trent Long (LM) 17:07.

West High – 1. Kolby Greiner 16:06; 25. Ethan Goers 17:30; 35. Ethan Trepka; 37. Kyle Sulwer 17:51; 41. Yousef Salama 17:56; 44. Will Conrad 18:00; 64. Jared Bailey 18:33.

Clear Creek Amana – 34. Nick O’Connor 17:47; 39. Brandon Barker 17:55; 57. Cole Liebe 18:19; 65. Jack Sexton 18:34; 114. Kaden McAreavy 19:41; 117. Brandon McCarty 19:49.

Solon – 97. Carl Richey 19:09; 116. Payton Philipp 19:48; 125. Andrew Bransky 20:00; 129. Jorel Justus 20:15; 130. Edward Richey 20:15; 131. Kenji Fisher 20:17; 133. Ethan Kober 20:24.

Girls Results

Team results – 1. Cedar Falls 60; 2. Linn-Mar 90; 3. Waukee 93; 4. Mid-Prairie 93; 5. Monticello 142; 6. Mason City 195; 7. Muscatine 291; 8. Marion 296; 9. Solon 303; 10. Anamosa 303; 11. Cedar Rapids Washington 310; 12. Mount Vernon/Lisbon 313; 13. Cedar Rapids Xavier 370; 14. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 370; 15. Fort Madison 377; 16. North Cedar 388; 17. Western Dubuque 411; 18. Cedar Rapids Prairie 415; 19. Clear Creek Amana 528; 20. Davenport West 573; 21. Maquoketa 634.

 Individual Results –1. Anna Hostetler (MP) 18:25; 2. Marie Hostetler (MP) 18:28; 3. Micah Poellet (LM) 19:18; 4. Lilly Geelan (LM) 19:48; 5. Paige Holub (MON) 20:02; 6. Sydney Schaffer (WAU) 20:05; 7. Peyton Kelderman (WAU) 20:07; 8. Reagan Gorman (CRW) 10:17; 9. Mackenzie Michael (CF) 20:19; 10. Anna Hertz (CF) 10:28.

Solon – 36. Kiersten Conway 21:44; 42. Sophie Nicol 22:03; 65. Caylee Annis 22:46; 71. Ella Duster 23:17; 89. Erin Kerkhoff 23:47; 96. Nicole Shafer 23:59; 113. Calista Haasl 24:29.                    

Clear Creek Amana – 26. Kaylie Barker 21:21; 119. Madeline Fox 25:03; 123. Olivia Fairholm 25:30; 129. Ellen Austin 26:05; 131. Ellie Waterbury 26:30; 134. Alexis Ponce 27:46.