Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High freshman Rowan Boulter was excited for a chance to compete at her first home meet last week.

Leading up to Thursday’s Bud Williams Invitational at the Ashton Cross Country Course Boulter was eager for a chance to gauge her progress on the same course where City High had held its time trials a month early.

Boulter was enthusiastic about running in front of family and friends and was thrilled for a day with nice weather.

If that seems like an unusual amount of excitement for a high school runner than you probably haven’t met Boulter.

“She shows up every single day at practice and to every competition with true excitement and just really wanting it and excited to be there,” City High co-head coach Lynn Ahlers said. “She really loves what she does and that is a cool thing to be around.”

That daily excitement has helped Boulter make an immediate impact as a front of the pack runner for Class 4A No. 10 City High in her first season of high school cross country.

Boulter finished first at the team’s time trials and August and hasn’t slowed down since.

In fact, Boulter has actually sped up, cutting more than 10 seconds off her time trials performance while notching her first career win at the Bud Williams Invite.

Boulter won the individual Bud Williams Invitational title in a career-best time of 19:31.3 more than 25 seconds in front of runner-up Carollin Mellin of Bettendorf.

“It was about 10 seconds faster and I’m happy with 10 seconds because I have been running a lot slower than that,” Boulter said. “It was nice to improve and it was nice to have a pr.”

Since the time trials last month Boulter has never stop leading the City High pack.

She was the top Little Hawk finisher at each of the first three meets before her Bud Williams Invitational title last week.

Boulter cracked the 20-minute mark for the first time at the Dubuque Invitational on September 20 and then took more than 25 seconds off that time while helping City High to the team title at their own home meet.

“She was our leader at time trials back on August 21 and she has really been helped out by Esti Brady a junior and Anna Lindower a senior and our whole varsity seven,” City High co-head coach Ryan Ahlers said. “They are great leaders for her but she has been really taking to the training and understanding what it takes to run at the high school level. She has a great spirit about her.”

The excitement and competitive spirit are things that the City High coaches enjoy about Boulter but Lynn and Ryan Ahlers also say that constant positive attitude is what helps her continue to improve.

For Boulter that is just the way she has always been.

“I’m excited to be able to have a chance to run and contribute,” Boulter said. “I think I’ve improved a lot from where I was at last month and hopefully I can continue to get better.

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