Prep Cross Country- The Iowa Association of Track Coaches (IATC) released the sixth edition of the team rankings for the four classes and our six of our seven local teams improving their position from last week.
Class 3A
The Fort Madison boys’ team is not going to have anyone consistently ranked in the top 30, but they are a consistent team as they picked up another easy victory at Mt. Pleasant.
The Bloodhounds nearly won by 40 points over Oskaloosa as their top four runners finished within the top 20, including their anchor Riley Tripp, who grabbed 2nd place overall with a time of 17 minutes and 2 seconds.
A second-place finish at the Anamosa Invitational bolstered their resume after losing first place by five points to Class 2A’s #2 Denver. The Bloodhounds climbed four spots in the rankings from #18 to #14.
The Fort Madison girls’ team continues to impress with a pair of team victories last week. Cruising to a near 50-point victory in Mt. Pleasant to a 20-point win at Anamosa over #7 Solon.
The win vaulted the Bloodhounds to #5 in the rankings after being ranked 7th last week.
Class 2A
Competitive week for the Mediapolis boys’ team, taking on three ranked teams in Mt. Pleasant and finishing in 3rd place followed by a trip to Burlington for the Tony Proctor Invitational, taking 2nd place.
The team is led by two ranked individuals: Simon Wendel and Will Schmidgall, as the pair consistently finish in the top 10. It will take the third, fourth, and fifth runners to make the who team a threat for Mediapolis.
Still, the Bulldogs did move up to #16 in the rankings after nearly falling out last week.
Class 1A
It was a big week for WACO. Not only did Jude Dykstra win the Mt. Pleasant Invitational at the last moment, but the Warriors also pulled off the upset against Columbus to win the team gold by 16 points.
The Warriors got sub-18-minute times from three of their runners and two other sub-19-minute times from Gavin Slagel and Tristan Luitjens. Their top five is really putting it together at the right time, resulting in a six-spot jump inside the top ten to #5.
Columbus is very similar to Fort Madison, one very good runner and a team full of good runners. Might not be the recipe for individual glory, but it is for team success. Despite falling to a WACO on a highlight day, the Wildcats only dropped one spot to #6 in the rankings.
Van Buren County only had one meet last week and the boys’ team finished in 3rd place at the Tony Proctor Invitational. Lincoln Bainbridge grabbed the bronze in a nice individual effort.
The boys’ team leapfrogged one spot up the rankings to #11.
The girls’ team for Van Buren County tallied another victory, but not nearly as dominant of fashion as their others, just three points over Clear Creek Amana—a much larger school.
The Warriors have a clear leader in Kayley Snowgren but this team consistently has multiple runners finish in the top 10 or at the very least the top 15.
Surprisingly, the girls’ team lost a spot in the rankings this week, moving from #6 to #7.