Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The first season of varsity cross country last fall was a resounding success for Bowen Gryp.

With the possible exception of the final race of the season.

Gryp joined the Liberty High team as a junior and jumped right into the front of the pack helping the Lightning qualify for the Class 4A state meet for the first time.

The historic trip to state ended up being one of the lower points in an otherwise stellar debut season as Gryp finished 91^st overall at the state meet last fall.

He had to wait nearly an entire year but Gryp got his state-meet redemption in his return trip to Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge on Friday.

Gryp finished 20^th overall in a time of 16:28.1, knocking 40 seconds off his state meet time from 2019.

“Last year it was clearly not a good race for me so just coming back from that focusing mentally was a big part for me today,” Gryp said. “I wasn’t in it mentally last year and this year that was my main focus today.”

The strong race from Gryp helped Liberty High climb the 4A teams standings after debuting at 10^th a year ago.

Gryp led a group of five Liberty High finishers in the top 44 among team scorers as Liberty High placed sixth with 172 points.

Freshman Aidan Decker (32) and seniors Caleb Schillinger (37) and Jack Kinzer (41) and junior Christian Montover (44) joined Gryp in the top-50.

“When I joined the program were on the rise,” Gryp said. “You have to give a lot of credit to the seniors like Jack Kinzer and Caleb Schillinger. Those guys they built the program, straight up.”

Liberty High lowered its team score by 82 points from a year ago while jumping four spots to sixth in the team standings and the improvement from Gryp was a big factor.

The senior improved his placement among team scorers by 59 spots from last season in the final race of his prep career.

“I felt good today,” Gryp said. “It was a chance for me to go out feeling better about what I was able to do on this course and I definitely did that.”

The addition of Gryp has certainly played a key role in the recent success for Liberty High.

According to Gryp the rise of the program over the past two seasons can be attributed to his coaches and teammates.

“We have the best coaching staff in the state,” Gryp said. “They know how to build a program and two back-to-back years at state finishing in the top 10 shows that.”

Gryp believes the sixth-place finish at state on Friday is only the beginning for the Lightning.

Along with Decker, juniors Jordan Robinson and Gavin Keeney are among the expected returners that competed at state on Friday.

“We are just going to keep improving,” Gryp said. “We just need to keep it going and we have a great younger class too so they are only going to get better.”

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