Breaking Down the Class 4A Boys State Cross Country Meet
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
The cross country season comes to a close this week with the two-day state meet on Friday and Saturday at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge.
Classes 1A and 2A get things started on Friday with Classes 3A and 4A closing the season with state title races on Saturday.
Before the action gets rolling in Fort Dodge Your Prep Sports takes a quick look at all the races featuring area teams and athletes.
Here is a quick breakdown of the Class 4A boys meet.
Where: Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge
When: Saturday, 2:45 p.m.
Qualifying teams: *Cedar Falls; Pleasant Valley; Dubuque Hempstead; *West Des Moines Dowling; City High; Davenport Central; *Johnston; Dallas Center-Grimes; Cedar Rapids Prairie; *Liberty High; Norwalk; Waukee Northwest; *Waukee; Ankeny Centennial; West Des Moines Valley
*-state qualifying meet champions
Individual state qualifying meet champions: Dominic Williams, Sr., Cedar Falls; Andrew Heden, Sr., Bettendorf; Kuma Gutema, Jr., Sioux City North; Preston Johnson, Sr., Marshalltown; Jaxton Alvarez, Sr., Ankeny Centennial
2025 top five: 1. Indianola 102; 2. Cedar Falls 104; 3. Ankeny Centennial 157; 4. Cedar Rapids Prairie 164; 5. Johnston 180
Last five team champions: 2025 – Indianola; 2024 – Cedar Falls; 2023 – West Des Moines Dowling; 2022 – West Des Moines Dowling; 2021 – West Des Moines Dowling
Returning state placewinners: 2. Preston Johnson, Sr., Marshalltown; 3. Keegan Decker, Sr., Liberty High; 4. Kuma Gutema, Jr., Sioux City North; 5. Jack Crossland, Sr., Johnston; 9. Andrew Heden, Sr., Bettendorf; 10. Dominic Williams, Sr., Cedar Falls; 13. Charlie Deick, Sr., West Des Moines Dowling
Top ranked teams: 1. West Des Moines Dowling; 2. Cedar Falls; 3. Liberty High; 4. Johnston; 5. Waukee
Ranked area teams: 3. Liberty High; 9. City High
Top ranked individuals: 1. Kuma Gutema, Jr., Sioux City North; 2. Jack Crossland, Sr., Johnston; 3. Preston Johnson, Sr., Marshalltown; 4. Keegan Decker, Sr., Liberty High; 5. Dominic Williams, Sr., Cedar Falls
Ranked area individuals: 4. Keegan Decker, Sr., Liberty High; 12. Maxwell Kinzer, Soph., Liberty High; 26. Andrew Hamilton, Jr., City High
Area individual qualifiers: Lars Pressler, Jr., West High; Jake Weiler, Jr., West High
Team title race: There will be a new team champion in Class 4A with last year’s title winner Indianola failing to return to Fort Dodge.
So who steps into the top spot in 2026?
Perennial power West Des Moines Dowling, last year’s runner-up Cedar Falls and fast-rising Liberty High are the top contenders to claim the team title.
Top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling is seeking its first state title since the Maroons won their final of three consecutive 4A crowns in 2023.
Cedar Falls finished two points back of Indianola for the team title last season and should be right in the mix to win a second state title in the past three seasons.
Liberty High is seeking its first state title and highest finish at the state meet in program history and is coming off an impressive showing at the Marshalltown state qualifying meet in which the Lightning won the team title by 50 points.
Johnston, which was fifth a year ago and Waukee will chase the three teams as the top and could earn a spot on the balcony at Lakeside Golf Course.
Individual title tracker: Last season the top four finishers in the 4A race were separated by less than five seconds and another thrilling race appears on tap for Saturday.
There will be a new individual champ with the graduation of last year’s champion Jaden Merrick of Cedar Falls.
The rest of the top five finishers from last season return including a trio of runners that cracked the 15-minute mark last season in Marshalltown senior Preston Johnson, Liberty High senior Keegan Decker and Sioux City North junior Kuma Gutema.
Decker has finished third each of the past two seasons and is looking to become the first individual state champion in Liberty High history.
Last week at the state qualifying meet Decker finished less than a second behind Johnson in a time of 15:03.6.
Area breakdown: Liberty High is making its seventh state meet appearance in the program’s ninth season and is seeking to make history in its fourth consecutive trip to Fort Dodge.
The Lightning have finished sixth at state twice, most recently in 2023, and are poised to improve on that performance on Saturday.
Sophomore Maxwell Kinzer joins Decker as ranked individuals for the Lightning and gives Liberty High a strong duo at the front of the pack.
This is the deepest and most experienced Liberty High team in history with seniors Tayson Cho, Lars Hildebrand and Colin Finch each multi-year state qualifiers.
Cho, a three-time qualifier, was 33rd at the state meet last season while Hildebrand is a four-year qualifier that finished 59th a season ago.
Junior Jens Strand also returns with state meet experience for the Lightning.
City High returns to the state meet for the third consecutive season and sixth time in the past seven seasons and is seeking to break into the top five at the state meet for first time since finishing third in 2021.
The Little Hawks finished runner-up to top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling at the Iowa City state qualifier and are led by junior Andrew Hamilton.
Senior David Randall is a three-time state qualifier that placed 38th at the state meet last season.
West High has a pair of individual qualifiers in senior Lars Pressler and junior Jake Weiler.
Weiler is a two-time state qualifier that placed 67th last season as a sophomore.
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