Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

After consecutive seasons filled with setbacks Ashlyn Keeney entered her senior season fully healthy and ready for a breakthrough performance.

The Liberty High standout senior got the type of early-season breakthrough she was looking for but had to wait a few more days than she expected.

In her senior season debut Keeney finished runner-up at the Bob Brown Invite at Kickers Soccer Complex in Iowa City on September 2 in a time of 19:45.57.

A week later at the Cedar Rapids Invitational Keeney responded with the type of performance that has made her one of the top distance runners in the state for the past three seasons.

Keeney won the individual title in a time of 18:14.9 last Thursday at Seminole Valley Park in Cedar Rapids, finishing more than 46 seconds in front of runner-up Hannah Ford of Davenport Central.

“I was definitely disappointed in my race last week because I knew I could run a lot faster and I felt like I could run a lot faster,” Keeney said. “So, this just makes up for that. This is more what I expected from where I am at in my training.”

Keeney has been considered one of the state’s top distance runners since she started high school at Liberty High in the fall of 2018.

She is a two-time state medalist in cross country and was runner-up in Class 4A in 2019.

However, the first three seasons of Keeney’s career haven’t come without challenges.

Keeney got a scare from a serious eye infection before her sophomore season and had to manage hip and hamstring pain that limited training before her junior season.

Late last spring during track season Keeney struggled with shin pain.

“Before last season I had to take more than a month off because I had some hamstring and hip pain that wouldn’t go away so I had to do a lot of physical therapy,” Keeney explained. This spring at the end of track season my shins were really killing me so I had to take little more time off than usual and ease my way back in but I am feeling good.”

After her runner-up finish at the Bob Brown Invitational to open the season Keeney said she felt like she was in a good spot, close to returning to her times of the past seasons.

On Thursday she did just that while setting the course record at Seminole Valley Park.

The time of 18:14.9 by Keeney was more than 10 seconds faster than the previous course record set by Alyssa Williams of Durant at the Class 1A state qualifying meet in 2015.

“That might be better than I ran all last season so I am pretty happy with it,” Keeney said. “I am feeling pretty good. That past couple of years I have had a lot of those rough patches and I feel like today really gave me my confidence back.”

Along with lowering her times Keeney has also been working to narrow down her college choices.

The senior is in the process of setting up official visits but says she has already has a list of schools she is interested in.

“I am narrowing down my list but I am still talking to some coaches and then I am setting up two official visits right now and hopefully I’ll have more coming,” Keeney said. “My top ones right now are Iowa State and Iowa and then I am going on a visit to Oklahoma State and then just a few others that I am looking at.”

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