City High Builds Confidence With Runner-up Finish at MVC Divisional Meet
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – The annual Mississippi Valley Conference divisional meet presented an important opportunity for City High.
Situated between the highly anticipated Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet and state qualifying meets the MVC Mississippi divisional meet on Thursday offered a final chance for the youthful Little Hawks to build confidence before the post season.
City High took full advantage of that opportunity with a runner-up finish behind second-ranked Dubuque Senior on a picture-perfect autumn afternoon at Ashton Cross Country Course in Iowa City.
“At this point of the year confidence is the key,” City High coach Ryan Ahlers said. “The fitness is there, there is no more magic wands you can wave over your teams. You are fit, you’ve been training since June and you are confident that as soon as that gun goes off you can dictate what is going to happen with your own race and focus on your competitors and beat as many people as possible.”
Class 4A sixth-ranked City High boasted plenty of confidence-boosting performances on Thursday.
The Little Hawks had four runners place in the top 13 all with times under 20 minutes while finishing with 56 points to edge seventh-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie by one point for the runner-up spot.
Dubuque Senior rolled to the team title with 32 points while No. 12 Western Dubuque was fourth with 100 points.
“We talk so much about the number that is most important in cross country is your place,” Ahlers said. “Just continue to fight every single meter of the race and you will be happy with your results and we are really happy with how our results today.”
Sophomore Rowan Boulter backed up a sixth-place Super Meet finish from last week by placing third on Thursday in a career-best time of 18:54.5.
Led by Boulter, each of the top five Little Hawk finishers on Thursday posted career-best times.
“We had four total girls under 20 minutes today and I am so happy for them,” Boulter said. “That was a big goal for them and they did amazing.”
Junior Lilly Reynolds finished sixth in a time of 19:14.1 while freshman Iris Wedemeyer and Erin Anderson placed 12th and 13th respectively each cracking the 20-minute mark for the first time.
“There wasn’t very much pressure for this meet we just wanted to improve today,” Wedemeyer said. “I like Ashton a lot because it’s our home course, we have run it before and we know it. I think that gave us a lot of confidence for today.”
Wedemeyer finished in 19:47.2 while Anderson was right behind at 19:54.4, each easily outdistancing their previous best times.
“I broke 20 minutes today which was one of my goals and I was really happy about that,” Wedemeyer said. “I felt really good today.”
Perhaps the Little Hawk that got the biggest shot of confidence on Thursday was senior Mary Bounds.
After winning the junior varsity title at the Super Meet last week Bounds jumped into the varsity lineup and placed 22nd in a time of 20:16.1, nearly 40 seconds faster than her previous fastest time.
“Mary Bounds won the JV race last week and we inserted her today and she ran fifth today,” Ahlers said. “She had a 39 second pr and ran fantastic and our sixth and seventh runners just continued to try to beat as many girls as they could and they did a great job of it.”
City High will see some familiar faces in its Class 4A state qualifier in Cedar Falls next Thursday.
Four teams from Thursday’s Mississippi Divisional Meet will be at the 4A qualifier including Super Meet and Division meet champion Dubuque Senior and Western Dubuque.
After its performance on Thursday confidence shouldn’t be a problem for the Little Hawks.
“We have been consistently getting better and having girls pr, pretty much every race we’ve had a pr,” Boulter said. “We’ve changed some runners but we have a really solid five and we keep improving.”
The City High boys placed third finishing behind 4A No. 5 Cedar Falls and seventh-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie.
Cedar Falls won the team title with 41 points, Cedar Rapids Prairie was second with 45 and City High was third with 86.
Freshman Ford Washburn placed eighth to lead City High in a time of 16:30.6 while senior Mitchell Wilkes was 10th in 16:31.6.
Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division Meet
At Ashton Cross Country Course in Iowa City
Team scores – 1. Dubuque Senior 32; 2. City High 56; 3. Cedar Rapids Prairie 57; 4. Western Dubuque 100; 5. Cedar Falls 152; 6. Cedar Rapids Washington 158; 7. Cedar Rapids Xavier 194
Individual leaders – 1. Lillian Schmidt (DS) 18:21.9; 2. Claire Edmondson (DS) 18:48.8; 3. Rowan Boulter (ICH) 18:54.5; 4. Izzy Gorton (DS) 18:57.9; 5. Gabby Cortez (CRP) 18:58.7; 6. Lilly Reynolds (ICH) 19:14.1; 7. Lauren Klein (WD) 19:14.2; 8. Mary Cline (CRW) 19:21.3; 9. Laurdyn Meyer (CRP) 19:27.3; 10. Carli Reittinger (CRP) 19:41.2; 11. Kate Miron (DS) 19:41.2; 12. Iris Wedemeyer (ICH) 19:47.2; 13. Erin Anderson (ICH) 19:54.4; 14. Lucy Tompkins Garoutt (DS) 19:58.8; 15. Grace Ries (DS) 20:00.8
City High – 3. Rowan Boulter 18:54.5; 6. Lilly Reynolds 19:14.1; 12. Iris Wedemeyer 19:47.2; 13. Erin Anderson 19:54.4; 22. Mary Bounds 20:16.1; 24. Esti Brady 20:35.6; 26. Lucy Corbin 20:43.4
Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division Meet
At Ashton Cross Country Course in Iowa City
Team scores – 1. Cedar Falls 41; 2. Cedar Rapids Prairie 45; 3. City High 86; 4. Cedar Rapids Washington 101; 5. Western Dubuque 117; 6. Dubuque Senior 160; 7. Cedar Rapids Xavier 181
Individual leaders – 1. Jack Pendergast (CRP) 15:44.3; 2. Brayden Burnett (CF) 16:06; 3. Max Locher (CRW) 16:06.5; 4. Hunter Kalous (CRP) 16:07.3; 5. Andrew Bickford (CRP) 16:17.8; 6. Eli Smith (CF) 16:24.1; 7. TJ Tomlyanocich (CF) 16:27.2; 8. Ford Washburn (ICH) 16:30.6; 9. Jack Renning (CRX) 16:31.1; 10. Mitchell Wilkes (ICH) 16:31.6; 11. Cade Messer (WD) 16:34; 12. Joel Burris (CF) 16:37.6; 13. McKade Adams (CRP) 16:38.5; 14. Alex Horstman (CF) 16:39.3; 15. Lewis Kleman (CRW) 16:44.2
City High – 8. Ford Washburn 16:30.6; 10. Mitchell Wilkes 16:31.6; 21. Truman Thompson 16:49.7; 23. Lance Smith 16:49.9; 24. Evan McElroy 16:57.2; 28. Parker Max 17:05.2; 30. Sullivan Hall 17:06.7
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