Prep Cross County- The Iowa Association of Track Coaches (IATC) released their sixth edition of the team and individual cross country rankings and one runner finds themself in the top five of the class, while Class 2A is heavily populated with members of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference (SEISC).
Class 3A
Mt. Pleasant held their invitational this past week and despite Silas Hulett for the host team not running due to illness, the Panther remained ranked. In fact, Hulett was placed inside the top 20 at #16, a rise of eight spots. Still, Washington’s Parker Tschantz’s 1st place finish at the invitational for the large schools allowed for the Demon to hop back up in the polls to #23.
On the girls’ side, Mt. Pleasant’s Avery Fedler ended up with the gold for the large schools, but her time of 20 minutes and 9 seconds moved her back in the rankings from #15 to #20 this week.
Class 2A
The Notre Dame/West Burlington boys’ team climbed the rankings from #13 last week to #11 this week after a 3rd place finish at the Grayhound Invite last Thursday. The Nikes are led by Cavin Denney and Matt Oleson, who have each been ranked in the individual polls this year.
On the individual side for the boys’, Will Schmidgall of Mediapolis and Central Lee’s Drake Newton made leaps up the rankings, as Schmidgall’s impressive 3rd place time of 17 minutes at the Mt. Pleasant Invite vaulted the Bulldog from #26 last week to #15 this week and Newton’s claim at the spot behind Schmidgall at the race led to the Hawk being placed two spots ahead at #20.
Schmidgall talked about what he learned about his ability on a difficult day of racing,
“Well, let’s just say I wasn’t expecting the mud over there. It really took a toll on my legs. Every time we went around, my legs just got stuck in there. It was hard to recover, but I pulled through and tried to finish out as strong as I could, so I’m just happy with the way I finished. I gave it all I had.”
On the girls’ side, Central Lee’s squad managed to win the Mt. Pleasant Invite for the small schools and managed a 5th place finish at the Anamosa Invite over the weekend. Aubree Bunnell was a big reason why with a pair of top 10 finishes, allotting the junior to rejoin the rankings at #23.
Another impressive climb for a member of Mediapolis belonged to Avery Dietz. A 3rd place performance at Mt. Pleasant with a time of 19 minutes and 42 seconds allowed for Dietz to move up from #16 to #9 in the rankings.
Also jumping back into the rankings was West Burlington/Notre Dame’s Hannah Ritter. The sophomore’s bronze medal time of 20 minutes and 2 seconds at the Grayhound Invite allowed for Ritter to slot in at #17.
Class 1A
The Columbus boys’ and Van Buren County girls’ teams both experienced a rise in the rankings after second place finishes at the Grayhound Invite. Both teams depend on every member of their team, as each squad claimed top 30 finishes from all scoring members.
Individually, WACO’s Josie Dykstra the most impressive finish of the week, as the Warrior went from #8 in the rankings to #3 for the girls’ poll after turning in a school record time of 19 minutes and 17 seconds at the Mt. Pleasant Invite. Dykstra is still aiming to break her own record,
“I just want to focus on getting more and more PRs. I already beat what I was hoping to get the season. So that’s super exciting. And that’s going to motivate me a lot in future races.”