Prep Cross Country- The Iowa Track Coaches Association (IATC) released their newest team rankings for the week and seven local teams find themselves ranked within the top 20, including a top 10 squad in Class 1A.
Class 3A
Fort Madison has been the team to look out for in Southeast Iowa with both the boys’ and girls’ squads as they both enter this week ranked with the boys’ team at 16th and the girls’ team gaining a spot to be placed at 12th.
These ratings come in spite of the Bloodhounds losing both of their ranked individual runners from a week prior. The boys’ team claimed 2nd at the Fairfield invite, while the girls’ team had runners finish 6th through 11th to claim the gold at the invite.
Class 2A
Mediapolis had an opportunity last week to set themselves apart from the other great teams in the area; however, the Bulldogs finished behind Danville twice and Van Buren County once, resulting in the dogs hanging on to the top 20 at #20.
Their one ranked runner, Will Schmidgall, also experienced a dip in the rankings, falling from 7th to 13th after grabbing 3rd in both of his races from the week prior.
Class 1A
On the boys’ side, the rivalry and Van Buren County continues to intensify as the Bears’ Jackson Shacklett and the Warriors’ Lincoln Bainbridge continue to trade top spot finishes but the team results are titled in Danville’s favor.
Isaac Shinn, Noah Horn, Nick Powell, and Trevor Yaley have helped the Bears finish in 1st place at each of their three meets to start off the season. Despite the 1st place finishes last week, the boys’ team tumbled back two spots to be ranked #6 this week.
Landry Loeffler, Lo Jirak, Elijah Westercamp, and Gavin Noll helped Van Buren County vault up the rankings from #14 to #12 this week.
Columbus has also made their appearance into the top 20 at #18 after being unranked last week. Ty Muniz is ranked as the 29th best runner in Class 1A.
On the girls’ side, the Danville girls’ team, led by the #30-runner Alaina Gourley, are ranked #13 for the week, which is one spot back from their rankings a week ago. Delaney Newberry, Abby Arnett, and Addison Henkelvig aided the Bears run at two 1st place finishes last week.
Next Rankings
Team rankings will be release tomorrow, September 17th, and individual rankings will be updated next Monday, September 23rd.