Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Everyone around the Clear Creek Amana cross country program expected Haidyn Barker to have an immediate impact in her first year in the program.

It hasn’t taken long for Barker to exceed those expectations.

In the first six races of her career Barker has notched four top-five finishes including a pair of individual titles while establishing herself as one of the top runners in Class 3A.

“I am really, really impressed by what she has done,” veteran Clear Creek Amana coach Jane Astor said. “She is super competitive, she is humble, she works really hard it’s been a great surprise. I am looking forward to her breaking the school record on a cool night. She’s doing a great job.”

Those around the program saw the early success coming for Barker who was described by her coach as a tireless worker.

Still the times and finishes that Barker has produced in her first varsity season have surprised even herself.

“I think I’ve maybe surprised myself a little,” Barker said. “I’m not sure where I thought I would be but I feel like it’s gone well.”

In the first varsity race of her career Barker placed 14th out of 173 runners at the always challenging Cedar Rapids Prairie Invite.

After a seventh-place performance at the Bob Brown Cross Country Classic the next week Barker has placed in the top four in each of her last four races.

Barker clocked a 21:00.3 at Cedar Rapids Prairie and posted a new career-best time twice in her next three races.

She won back-to-back titles at the Tipton Invite in a time of 20:40 and then won the Benton Community Invitational in a personal best time of 20:11.7.

My goal was to get as many prs as I could this year,” Barker said. “I’ve gotten a couple already so I am happy with that.”

In her last two races Barker has finished fourth at the North Scott Invitational and third at the Solon Invite on Monday.

At Solon on Monday Barker finished behind Marie Hostetler of Mid-Prairie and Bettendorf sophomore Hannah Bientema.

“I was excited to run against all these girls,” Barker said. “This is a really good group of runners.”

One of the things that has impressed Astor is the maturity with which Barker runs.

In her first varsity season she has already proven to be a savvy racer.

“The thing that I think is the most impressive about her is she is going out slow and she is negative splitting it so she has figured out how to get out and then pick it up in the middle of a race,” Astor said. “She is picking people off like that because other people are going out too hard and she is running negative splits and catching them at the end.”

Barker used that strategy on Monday at Solon when she went from running in a pack well off the pace for the first mile to a top-five position entering the final mile.  

“She was probably 20th at the start of the race and between the three-quarter mile to the mile and half mark she went from 20th to fifth,” Astor said. “She has figured it out and she is only going to keep improving.”

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