Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – There were a few bouts of doubt over the last several weeks and some tense moments on Thursday but the streak is alive and well at City High.

City High stretched its state-record string of consecutive state meet appearances to an even 30 with a third-place finish at the Class 4A state qualifier at Ashton Cross Country Course on Thursday.

“Coming in I couldn’t stop thinking that I didn’t want to be the team to drop the ball and stop the streak,” City High senior Amelia Morrow said. “It kind of weighs on you but I think it’s good because it pushes you.”

City High entered unranked and didn't have a runner finish better than 10th on Thursday but found a way to push its state meet streak to three decades.

Morrow placed 10th to lead five City High runners that finished between 10th and 20th as City High finished with 82 points, 24 in front of No. 12 North Scott for the third state meet berth.

“It’s special, and this year we are more of a pack team,” first-year City High co-head coach Lynn Ahlers said. “We had the confidence that they could do it today if they did it together.

City High hasn’t missed a state meet since 1987.

A pair of sub-par performances by City High standards during the Mississippi Valley Conference championship swing dropped City High from the rankings for the first time and added a hint of doubt to whether the streak would reach 30.

“Nobody explicitly said we probably won’t make it to state but it was weighing heavily on our minds,” City High senior captain Bridget Brown said. “We made it a point this past week to really build up our confidence that we are a team that can make it to state we just have to put our minds to it.”

City High followed up a seventh-place finish at the MVC super meet with a disappointing fifth place performance at the Valley Divisional meet last Thursday.

On Thursday the Little Hawks looked more like the team that finished third at the Class 4A meet last season.

“When you are going into district week and you aren’t coming off a wonderful performance at divisional the thought process is there that we have to run really well to do this but the girls thrived on that today,” City High co-head coach Ryan Ahlers said. “They ran more spirited today than they have in a while I thought.”  

Cedar Rapids Prairie finished 10 points in front of City High at the Divisional meet last week.

On Thursday City High outdistanced the Hawks by 35 points.

“After last week we had a couple of really quality workouts that boosted our confidence,” Brown said. “We had meetings where we just talked about our setbacks and how we can overcome them.”

Running at their home course on Thursday the Little Hawks had their best performance in weeks.

The return of Morrow, who missed both of the MVC meets with an illness was a boost for City High.

Morrow finished 10th in 19:59.7 and was the only Little Hawk to break 20:00.

“We were focused on going to state and nothing else,” Morrow said. “That is really all we had in our mind, no distractions. The streak is motivation. It’s a huge legacy and it pushes you to continue it.”

City High was balanced on Thursday with less than 53 seconds separating the first and seventh finishers for the Little Hawks.

Sophomore Esti Brady was 16th in 20:22.1, Kinsee Brands was 17th in 20:23.1, Annie Rummelhart was 19th and Brown was 20th.

As Lynn and Ryan Ahlers announced the third-place finish to team members a wild celebration ensued.

“It was so great,” Brown said. “We all put so much out on the course this race we were thinking there was a chance we could do it and so when the news came out it was just a release.”

Class 4A State Qualifying Meet

At Ashton Cross Country Course

Girls Results

Team scores – 1. West High 29; 2. Cedar Falls 64; 3. City High 82; 4. North Scott 106; 5. Cedar Rapids Prairie 117; 6. Muscatine 174; 7. Cedar Rapids Washington 174; 8. Western Dubuque 228; 9. Waterloo 283.

Individual Results – 1. Bailey Nock (ICW) 18:34.3; 2. Kiara Malloy-Salgado (ICW) 19:25.7; 3. Mackenzie Michael (CF) 19:27.9; 4. Laurdyn Meyer (CRP) 19:30.2; 5. Erica Buettner (ICW) 19:34.1; 6. Presley Case (NS) 10:34.5; 7. Colleen Bloeser (ICW) 10:36.8; 8. Reagan Gorman (CRW) 19:42.4; 9. Anna Hertz (CF) 19:44.9; 10. Amelia Morrow (ICH) 19:59.7; 11. Moriah Morter (MUS) 20:02.4; 12. Paige Kvale (CF) 10:02.9; 13. Sommer Clydesdale (NS) 20:10.7; 14. Deniz Ince (ICW) 20:20.6; 15. Abbi Lafrenz (NS) 20:21.7.

City High – 10. Amelia Morrow 19:59.7; 16. Esti Brady 20:22.1; 17. Kinsee Brands 20:23.1; 19. Annie Rummelhart 20:34.4; 20. Bridget Brown 20:42.9; 23. Aly Hecker 20:47.8; 24. Anna Lindower 20:52.3.

West High – 1. Bailey Nock 19:34.3; 2. Kiara Malloy-Salgado 19:25.7; 5. Erica Buettner 19:34.1; 7. Colleen Bloeser 19:36.8; 14. Deniz Ince 20:20.6; 32. Katie Hoefer 21:17.7; 36. Lucy Westemeyer 21:41.5.