Seven Your Prep Sports Area Girls Cross Country Runners to Watch This Season
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
Cross country is a sport for distance runners but the prep season in Iowa can feel like a sprint.
The first day of practice for teams across the state was Monday and state qualifying meets are already just a little more than two months away.
Competition for cross country teams across the state start on August 22 with state qualifying meets set for October 19 and 20 and the state meet scheduled for October 28 and 29 at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge.
That is a whirlwind of a season.
Before area runners toe the finish line for the first time later this month we take a look at seven of the top returning runners in the Your Prep Sports area for 2022.
Kayla Young
Senior, Solon
Young emerged as a front of the pack runner for the Spartans early last season and finished with a flurry posting three consecutive individual top-five finishes while leading Solon to the Class 3A state title.
With three seniors graduated from last year’s title winning team Young will once again be a key piece for the Spartans.
Last season Young finished third at the WAMAC conference meet, won the state qualifier and finished fifth at the 3A state meet in 19:19.68.
Haidyn Barker
Senior, Clear Creek Amana
The more Barker runs the better the Clear Creek Amana standout gets.
Barker continued her climb up the Class 3A ranks last season with her best season yet capped by a career-best 20th place finish at the 3A state meet in a time of 19:49.9.
In her first three varsity seasons Barker has posted three top-three finishes at the WAMAC Conference meet, including back-to-back runner-up finishes, and reached the state meet all three seasons.
Barker was 63rd at state as a freshman and 33rd as a sophomore before jumping to 20th a year ago.
Cindy Wang
Junior, West High
There may not have been a more improved runner in the state last season than Wang who went from the West High junior varsity team as a freshman to the front of the Trojan pack a year ago.
Now Wang will look to build on her stellar sophomore season while attempting to lead West High back to the Class 4A state meet.
In her first full-time varsity season Wang finished 17th at the MVC Super meet and sixth at the Class 4A state qualifier.
She capped her breakthrough season by placing 34th at the 4A state meet in a time of 19:44.58.
Iris Wedemeyer
Senior, City High
There are plenty of talented runners returning for the Little Hawks this season, including Iris Wedemeyer’s younger sister Ani, but Iris Wedemeyer is the heart and soul of the City High program.
Wedemeyer is a talented runner herself.
She posted top-10 finishes at both the MVC Super Meet (eighth) and Class 4A state qualifier (seventh) before placing 36th at the Class 4A state meet in a time of 19:45.34.
Mya Whitaker
Senior, Regina
Whitaker will be seeking big things in her final prep season after helping Regina to top-sixth team finishes at the state meet in each of her first three seasons.
Regina has finished fourth, fifth and sixth at the Class 1A state meet the past three seasons and Whitaker has been a big reason why posting three consecutive top-35 finishes.
Whitker is coming off the best season of her career last fall when she finished third at the Class 1A state qualifier before posting a career-best 29th place finish at the 1A state meet in 21:11.45.
Cori Mac
Junior, Liberty High
An individual state qualifier as a freshman in 2020, Mac missed returning to the state meet last season but is back as an experienced upperclassmen ready to lead a Liberty High team that will look to fill the leadership void left by the graduation of four-time state qualifier Ashlyn Keeney.
Mac showed last season she is more than capable of running at the front of the pack at every meet.
A year ago Mac finished 10th at the MVC Super Meet and placed 59th at the state meet as a freshman.
Anna Quillin
Junior, Solon
Like her teammate Young, Quillin came on strong at the right time finishing off a breakthrough sophomore season with a top-20 individual finish at the state meet.
Quillin emerged as one of the top runners for the state champion Spartans late in the season finishing seventh at the WAMAC Conference meet and sixth at the 3A state qualifier.
She ran perhaps the best race of her career at the state meet finishing 19th in a time of 19:49.3, one of three Solon runners in the top 20.
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