Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Kolby Greiner fills a lot of roles for the West High cross country team.

Number one runner. Team captain. Cheerleader, mentor, emotional leader.

This season Greiner has added another title to that list.

“I’ve been telling myself that this season has me feeling like a meteorologist,” Greiner said with a laugh. “Every day I am looking at the weather and saying please, please don’t do what I think you are going to do.”

A string of hot, humid and rainy weather through the first month of the season produced schedule changes, rotten racing conditions and some frustration.

Greiner took advantage of some long-awaited nice weather on Thursday winning the Bud Williams Invitational title on Thursday at Ashton Cross Country Course in Iowa City.

“I am just very, very happy with today, it’s a step in the right direction,” Greiner said. “Our races haven’t really been reflecting our workouts. I’ve been working really hard and doing my best in the workouts and it’s kind of a bummer to come out and have the conditions we’ve had. It’s cross country so it’s all about the win.”

The win by Greiner helped Class 4A ninth-ranked West High to a runner-up team finish with 46 points.

Class 4A fourth-ranked Pleasant Valley won the team title with 21 points while Bettendorf was third with 89 points.

Host City High was fourth with 121 and Liberty High was sixth with 187 points.

Greiner won the individual title in 16:03.6 to finish better than 12 seconds in front of Pleasant Valley junior Kent Nichols.

“I’m very pleased with today,” Greiner said. “It was great conditions and I love this course so much so I’m very happy.”

The weather almost cost West High a chance to compete at its home course this season.

The Trojans had their own home race schedule for Tuesday washed out by a passing thunderstorm.

West High was a late addition to the 11-team Bud Williams Invitational field.

“It’s nice to have nice weather and to have a day like this on our home course,” West High coach Josh Kidman said. “Our guys know this place so they were just chomping at the bit to race here after Tuesday got cancelled and City High was nice enough to let us into the meet.”

Junior Kenneth Wilbur placed sixth in a time of 16:50.5 as West High put five runners in the top 15.

Yousif Salama was 11th in 17:00.7 and William Conrad was 13th in 17:05.7.

“The guys worked hard all summer long and they weren’t eating the fruit of their labor just yet and they knew it was coming but the waiting for it was getting really frustrating and I think they could see that a little bit in me too so we were all frustrated together,” Kidman said. “Tonight, I think we can hang our hats on a good effort.”

Greiner led that effort by racing to the front of the pack early and never letting anyone close the gap.

The second-ranked senior earned his third win of the season in a season-best time that more accurately reflects the training Greiner has been doing.

“I’ve been training and my races don’t reflect it but I’ve been training around a 15:35 pace very comfortably,” Greiner said. “I really need to work on my last mile. I kind of floated that last mile.”

City High was led by junior Mitchell Wilkes who was 19th in 17:19.3 while sophomore Andre Miller was 23rd in a time of 17:30.1.

Peter Woodward placed 27th in 17:35.1 to pace Liberty High while Ethan Keeney was 32nd in 17:52.9.

Bud Williams Invitational

Boys Results

Team scores – 1. Pleasant Valley 21; 2. West High 46; 3. Bettendorf 89; 4. City High 121; 5. Muscatine 152; 6. Liberty High 187; 7. Pekin 189; 8. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 191; 9. Ottumwa 268; 10. Iowa Mennonite 320; 11. Durant 324

Individual leaders – 1. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 16:03.6; 2. Kent Nichols (PV) 16:15.9; 3. Max Murphy (PV) 16:21.5; 4. Parker Huhn (PV) 16:34.7; 5. Gavin Smith (PV) 16:41.2; 6. Kenneth Wilbur (ICW) 16:50.5; 7. Kole Sommer (PV) 16:55.8; 8. Nick Moore (BET) 16:56.5; 9. Ian Kaffenberger (PV) 16:56.9; 10. Colten Glosser (PEK) 16:58.9 

West High – 1. Kolby Greiner 16:03.6; 6. Kenneth Wilbur 16:50.5; 11. Yousif Salama 17:00.7; 13. William Conrad 17:05.7; 15. Raymond Yang 17:11.4; 20. Marek Ghabel 17:21.1; 21. Alex McKane 17:21.7

City High – 19. Mitchell Wilkes 17:19.3; 23. Andre Miller 17:30.1; 25. Charles Maxwell 17:33.6; 26. Jonathan Brown 17:34.3; 28. Yasar Hassan 17:42.1; 36. Olivier Shabani 18:00.1; 38. Sullivan Hall 18:06.6

Liberty High – 27. Peter Woodward 17:35.1; 32. Ethan Keeney 17:52.9; 34. Jack Kinzer 17:58.3; 45. Henry Krain 18:20.3; 49. Caleb Schillinger 18:30.2; 51. Christian Montover 18:35.4; 53. Logan Nelson 18:38.2

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