Prep Cross Country- The Iowa Association of Track Coaches released their third edition of the individual rankings. This is the first rankings of the season that every team has at least one race under their belt, leading to some new names being added to the list, including a freshman phenom.
Class 3A
Starting on the girls’ side, Mt. Pleasant’s Avery Fedler was not ranked entering the season but there was plenty of hype surrounding the freshman and so far, she has delivered in her first high school meets.
Fedler was tasked with running against three top 10 runners in Mid-Prairie’s #5 Brooklyn Sutuzman, #7 Rachel Hostetler, and #9 Kendal Landstrum in her first meet of the season at Williamsburg. She responded by grabbing the gold medal time of 19 minutes and 7 seconds.
Her second meet of the season put her up against some of the best from Class 3A at the Dutch Invite from Central College. The freshman managed to shave off 18 seconds from her time to take 3rd place.
She only finished behind #1 Marissa Ferebee and #2 Elise Brennenman, both from Pella. For Fedler’s effort, she was ranked #4 in this week’s rankings, leapfrogging two other Southeast Conference runners.
In a bit of shock, Washington’s #16 Iris Dahl ranks two spots above Fort Madison’s Avery Rump. The reason for the surprise is Rump just won the Keokuk Invite with a time of 18 minutes and 59 seconds, while Dahl’s season-best time sits just two seconds under the 20-mintue mark.
The three will meet on Thursday, September 11th, at the Ron Hunerdosse Invite in Fairfield.
On the boys’ side, Washington’s Andrew Rees landed at #16 for this week’s ranking after claiming a time of 16 minutes and 33 seconds at the Bob Brown Invitational.
He finished 2nd at the meet behind only Quentin Nauman of Western Dubuque—the Oregon commit and last year’s champions with the Class 3A state record time of 14 minutes and 59 seconds.
Class 2A
#15 Simon Wendel is the only runner left from not only Mediapolis but of all our local teams. In the Bulldogs’ only meet of the season, Wendel claimed the bronze with a time of 16 minutes and 49 seconds as the team finished in 5th place.
The Bulldogs will run tomorrow, September 9th, at the Van Buren County Invite in a meet that won’t help their team rankings, per se, but it could cement Wendel’s individual ranking.
Class 1A
Van Buren County has competed in two meets so far and Lincoln Bainbridge has finished 2nd place twice with a season best time of 16 minutes and 25 seconds. That places the senior at #17 in this week’s rankings, one spot behind Hayden Riggan of Louisa-Muscatine, who he just recently lost to.
Surprisingly, WACO’s Jude Dykstra, who won his only race of the season at Hillcrest Academy, is ranked 10th this week. His season-best time rests at 17 minutes and 18 seconds.
Ryan Villa of Columbus, who finished in 2nd place at the meet, entered the rankings at #24.
On the girls’ side, Alaina Gourley of Danville was knocked out of the top 30.