Your Prep Sports

Ryan Murken

IOWA CITY – Rowan Boulter viewed the first home meet of her career as a chance to gauge how much progress she had made in her first month as a varsity runner.

“I was just excited to have a good race and have something to compare to another race,” Boulter said. “We had time trials here so it was nice to be able to compare times on the same course.”

A little more month after City High held its time trials at the Ashton Cross Country Course in Iowa City the Little Hawks returned for their own Bud Williams Invitational on Thursday.

The City High freshman got a lot more than an opportunity to compare times in her return trip to the University of Iowa course.

Boulter picked up the first individual title of her career as City High rolled to the team title at its own nine-team meet on a cool and overcast afternoon at Ashton Cross Country Course.  

“It felt amazing,” Boulter said. “I did not think that was going to happen today I was really prepared to get a top 10 so the first win feels great.”

Boulter led three Little Hawks in the top five as Class 4A No. 10 City High finished with 29 points to outdistance No. 15 Bettendorf by 29 for the team title.

City High had five runners finish in the top 11 on its way to its first team title of the season.

“I think tonight was definitely a big step,” second-year City High co-head coach Ryan Ahlers said. “We wanted our kids to get in the front of the race and establish themselves early in the first mile and they did that.”

Boulter was one of the Little Hawks to bolt to the front of the pack early.

The freshman finished in a career-best time of 19:31.3 which was better than 25 seconds faster than runner-up Carollin Mellin of Bettendorf.

“The first mile I was feeling good and I was like wow this is amazing,” Boulter said. “The second mile was a little tougher but I was still feeling great and the third mile I had to push through it but it wasn’t too bad.”

Sophomore Jae Dancer and junior Esti Brady weren’t far back finishing fourth and fifth respectively.

Dancer clocked a time of 20:29.7 while Brady was less than a half second back at 20:30.

“Jae and I the whole way just pushed each other,” Brady said. “Having her there with me through the whole race made me stay encouraged to keep pushing myself.”

Dancer joins Boulter and fellow sophomores Elizabeth Perrill who was eighth in 20:37.6, Lilly Reynolds who placed 11th in 20:51.1 and 12th place CeCe Kelly-Harvey as first-year varsity runners in a young City High lineup.

“I’ve made a lot of improvement,” Dancer said. “Last year I didn’t really run varsity at all and I’ve been working hard over the summer and I’m glad I got a chance to run varsity this summer.”

As a junior Brady and senior Anna Lindower (16th in 21:08.8) have become leaders for the young team.

Brady used her experience and the advice of Ahlers to get out early to post her best finish of the season.

“I was nowhere near as nervous for this race today as I usually am part of that is because it’s at home, it’s beautiful weather and it’s a lot smaller than races we’ve been doing,” Brady said. “The gun went off and I went out to the front as the coaches said that we should do and that felt really weird because I’m not used to starting off a race in the front but I felt very comfortable.”

Bud Williams Invitational

Girls Results

Team scores – 1. City High 29; 2. Bettendorf 58; 3. Ottumwa 106; 4. Muscatine 111; 5. Pleasant Valley 121; 6. Pekin 135; 7. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 201; 8. Durant 246; 9. Iowa Mennonite 252  

Individual leaders – 1. Rowan Boulter (ICH) 19:31.3; 2. Carollin Mellin (OTT) 19:56.4; 3. Bookin-Nosbisch (OTT) 20:24.5; 4. Jae Dancer (ICH) 20:29.7; 5. Esti Brady (ICH) 20:30; 6. Madison Temple (BET) 20:35; 7. Ella Schmit (BET) 20:35.6; 8. Elizabeth Perrill (ICH) 20:37.6; 9. Rachel Nagle (CRJ) 20:42.1; 10. Rylee Blake (MUS) 20:44.2

City High – 1. Rowan Boulter 19:31.3; 4. Jae Dancer 20:29.7; 5. Esti Brady 20:30; 8. Elizabeth Perrill 20:37.6; 11. Lilly Reynolds 20:51.1; 12. CeCe Kelly-Harvey 20:52.9; 16. Anna Lindower 21:08.8

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