Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – The state cross country meet is a little over two weeks away.

Liberty High sophomore Keegan Decker will enter the final two weeks and the biggest meets of the season with a little extra bounce in his step following an impressive effort at the Mississippi Valley Conference Super Meet on Thursday.

Decker finished third behind a pair of the top runners in the state at the MVC Super Meet last week at Seminole Valley Park in Cedar Rapids.

“It feels great, this is a real boost for me,” Decker said. “I had no expectations to be able to stick with (the leaders) this race going into it and it kind of played out. I made it happen.”

Decker finished third at the Super Meet in a blazing time of 15:05.8 finishing behind a pair of top-two ranked runners in Cedar Falls junior Jaden Merrick and Western Dubuque junior Quentin Nauman.

Merrick, the defending 4A runner-up, is ranked second in 4A and won the individual title in 14:55.4.

Nauman, was sixth at the state meet in 3A last season and is top-ranked in 3A, finished runner-up in 15:04.9.

Running with two of the best in the state was a big boost for Decker who was 17^th at the 4A state meet last season.

“I was not going into this race thinking that I was going to run with those guys,” Decker said. “But I got out the first 400 and I thought I might as well stick with them for a mile or so and then from there I think a mile and a quarter they started getting a gap and I tried closing that gap over the last mile.”

Decker, who is ranked fifth in Class 4A, entered the race with a goal to run under 15:20.

He shattered that expectation in his third-place finish that helped Liberty High finish sixth in the team standings at the 15-team meet.

“I feel great about that time,” Decker said. “I had no expectation to run that fast, going into the race I felt like sub 15:20 would be great.”

Decker will look to use the Super Meet performance as a springboard into a strong finish to what has already been an impressive season.

Liberty High returns to Seminole Valley Park for the Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Divisional meet on Thursday.

District meets are schedule for October 23 before the 4A state meet which is set for November 1.

“This is just momentum for me,” Decker said. “Next week I’m back here again and I’ll see if I can get a pr and being able to race with those guys is a huge boost.”

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