Prep Cross Country- There were two big meets last week in southeast Iowa that sharpened the image of some of the top runners in the area, while also allowing for a new face in the individual rankings.
Class 3A
The Mt. Pleasant Invitational provided Avery Fedler’s first opportunity to run in front of the home crowd for her high school career. After, admittedly, a fast first mile, Fedler calmed down to win the gold medal with a time of 18 minutes and 53 seconds.
That was the overall best time for the large or small girls’ division, defeating Fort Madison’s Avery Rump by 10 seconds. The two impressive times vaulted both runners up a spot in the rankings.
Fedler is now ranked #2, while Rump was placed at #11. Fedler talked about the extra training she’s had to do to compete at this level,
“I think one thing I’ve really worked on is building my mileage. So, in middle school I probably wasn’t running more than 10 miles a week, and I’ve built it up to like 30 miles a week, 10 miles is not ideal for any kind of mid distance runner, so building my mileage is definitely the key factor in my success.”
Isolated from the conference competition, Washington’s Iris Dahl turned in her best time of the season at the Solon Invitational, a bronze medal time of 19 minutes and 35 seconds. This deduction of time moved the Demon up five spots in the rankings from #22 to #17.
Class 2A
Hard to know it homefield advantage still counts after transferring to a different school two years ago; however, Simon Wendell of Mediapolis was on the wrong end of a classic finish at Mt. Pleasant High School.
Wendel, who had been leading for most of the race, saw his position usurped by WACO’s Jude Dykstra in the final 100 meters, resulting in the Warrior victory and Wendel with a phenomenal silver-medal time of 16 minutes and 26 seconds.
Finishing not too far behind for 3rd place was another Bulldog in Will Schmidgall, clocking a time of 16 minuets and 49 seconds. Wendel would improve his time at the Tony Proctor Burlington Invitational to tab a mark of 16 minutes and 24 seconds.
Schmidgall took fourth place with a time of 17 minutes and 4 seconds. The result was Wendel moving back two spots to #7 and Schmidgall climbing six spots to #15.
Burlington Notre Dame/West Burlington has a pair of talented freshmen that put their skills on display at the Tony Proctor Invitational last week in Cavin Denney and Hannah Ritter.
Denney made his first appearance in the individual rankings last week and followed that up by ascending three spots in the rankings to #24 this week after taking 5th place with a time of 17 minutes and 11 seconds.
Hannah Ritter made her first ever appearance in the rankings this week, leaping nearly into the top 15, getting placed at #16. Ritter claimed 2nd place with a time of 20 minutes and 20 seconds at the Tony Proctor Invitational.
Class 1A
“Not really, I think I am more motivated coming back to Mount Pleasant” said Jude Dykstra after the race. “I know so many people here and it’s a great environment.”
Whether it was homefield advantage or increased motivation, the victory for the Warrior launched the senior five spots in the rankings to #6 this week.
Van Buren County’s Lincoln Bainbridge has been jumbled all around the rankings and this week was no difference as the Warrior finished in 3rd place at the Tony Proctor Invitational with a time of 16 minutes and 47 seconds.
Bainbridge tumbled back six spots in the rankings, leaving the top 10 to find an open spot at #12.
Lastly, on the girls’ side, Josie Dykstra of WACO’s near sub-20-minute time was good enough for the bronze in the small division and 6th place overall at the Mt. Pleasant Invitational. After nearly falling out of the top 30 last week, the sophomore was safely elevated to #24 in the rankings.