Glenwood girls headed to state cross country

ATLANTIC - Glenwood girls cross country coach Jeff Janssen felt confident if his team could place his top five runners among the top 25 places, they’d have a good shot at making state.

The Rams did just that – and better.

“We almost had seven girls reach that benchmark,” Janssen said.

Lacey Jackson, Kate Kaufman and Katelyn Malcom all punched individual trips to state with top 15 finishes and Erin Schultz (20th place) and Lexi Hankins (23rd) rounded out the Rams’ 78 team points and runner up finish at the Class 3A State Qualifying meet at Atlantic High School Thursday.

The Glenwood boys placed fourth as a team, just missing the top three and a spot in next week’s state cross country meet at Fort Dodge but the Rams’ Parson Covington and Mason Parks both punched individual state bids.

For the Glenwood girls, the state bid put another notch on what’s been a historic season for the Rams following last week’s first Hawkeye 10 title in three decades. The state bid for the girls is their first since 2004 and fifth all time.

“We can’t thank the support from our family and community enough over the course of the season, and we look forward to the preparation for what should be a special time up in Fort Dodge,” Janssen said.

The in Fort Dodge hosts the state meet Saturday at the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course. Class 4A kicks off the day’s races at 11 a.m.

In Atlantic, Janssen said his team ran their race of the year on a tough course against the toughest competition out of sheer “guts.”

“As we’ve done all year, the girls continued to move up over last part of the race and really gutted out an outstanding performance on a tough course and against stiff competition,” Janssen said. “I cannot be more proud of the determination and the toughness that our girls showed.”

Jackson led the way for the Rams with a 12th place in a time of 20:49.

Kaufman (14th) and Malcom (15th) place were less than 10 seconds behind Jackson to be the final two runners to qualify for state at the meet.

The three individual state cross country qualifiers is a school-record for Glenwood.

“Lacey continues to have a great season, Kate’s hard work and years of dedication were highlighted Thursday and Katelyn’s ability to be a first year (cross country) runner and to qualify individually is truly outstanding,” Janssen said.    
Janssen said he was proud of his individual state qualifiers but pointed to the team effort as a key in his team’s success – this season and at Atlantic.

“I’m so proud of our other four runners, Aubrey McIntyre, Erin Schultz, Lexi Hankins, and Abi Schultz for doing what we asked of them,” he said.

The Glenwood boys, the Hawkeye 10 Conference champions, finished a disappointing fourth at the state qualifier. District champion Carlisle, followed by Bondurant-Farrar and A-D-M nabbed the top three spots and the team bids to state.

Glenwood boys coach Todd Peverill said the fourth place finish was tough for his team to take after all the hard work they put in this year.

“They worked so hard this year and we came up a little short,” Peverill said. “It’s great we got two guys in (to state). A-D-M ran probably a little better than we thought they would and we just missed out on them.”

Peverill guesses about 13 seconds was the difference between the Rams’ fourth place finish with 107 points and A-D-M’s third place 78 points.

“We pick up 13 seconds and we’re probably in,” Peverill said. “It’s hard because we ran well and we didn’t quite get there.”

Parks is a repeat state qualifier for the Glenwood boys. His 13th place time of 17:39 was just a second behind teammate Covington, who placed 11th. The state bid is Covington’s first after just missing the top 15 cut a year ago.
Both ran in a tight pack of 20 to 25 runners for much of the race that compacted the running space and made for a tight finish after overall individual champion Nate Mueller of A-D-M. Mueller finished 29 seconds ahead of runners up Carter Logue of Carlisle but the next 13 runners were separated by a total of just 43 seconds.

“They got out all okay, all five of our guys, but then they just kind of got out of position in the second mile and nothing really went wrong, Mason and Parson stayed up in that front group and made their move late,” Peverill said. “We thought they might be three or four spots higher but one of the things was that front pack was so tight it was hard to get space to run.”

The Rams Gable Thompson added a 22nd place finish followed by Sam McIntyre in 28th and Tyler Huey in 33rd.
Peverill is determined to not led the disappointing team finish sully the Rams’ great season.

“We talked a lot after the meet about moving forward with Mason and Parson and seeing how we can do at state and how we can get better for next season,” Peverill said. “We analyzed what we need to do for next year to get better. We’ll tweak our training a little bit more and see what we can do.”

Class 3-A State Qualifying Meet

Girls Team Results
1. Ballard, 65. 2. Glenwood, 78. 3. Denison, 106. 4. Atlantic, 118. 5. Harlan, 121. 6. Creston, 150. 7. A-D-M, 181. 8. Winterset, 221. 9. Carlisle, 268. 10.  Bondurant-Farrar, 290. 11. Kuemper Catholic, 307. 12. Perry, 317. 13. Boone, 328.

Individual State Qualifiers
1. Raegan Andersen, Denison, 19:41. 2. Megan Sievers, Carlisle, 20:01. 3. Ellie Twedt, Ballard, 20:09. 4. Ellie Mendlik, Denison, 20:19. 5. Taylor McCreedy, Atlantic, 20:23. 6. Sadie Juergens, A-D-M, 20:25. 7. Lauren Matthews, Ballard, 20:34. 8. Braelyn Baker, Creston, 20:36. 9. Greichaly Kaster, Harlan, 20:39. 10. Cailtin Maher, Ballard, 20:41. 11. Brielle Baker, Creston, 20:46. 12. Lacey Jackson, Glenwood, 20:49. 13. Brecken Van Baale, Harlan, 20:49. 14. Kate Kaufman, Glenwood, 20:53. 15. Katelyn Malcom, Glenwood, 21:02.

Boys Team Results
1. Carlisle, 40. 2. Bondurant-Farrar, 64. 3. A-D-M, 78. 4. Glenwood, 107. 5. Kuemper Catholic, 161. 6. Ballard, 172. 7. Atlantic, 197. 8. Winterset, 221. 9. Harlan, 234. 10. Boone, 249. 11. Denison, 287. 12. Creston, 316. 13. Perry, 329.

Individual State Qualifiers
1. Nate Mueller, A-D-M, 16:32. 2. Carter Logue, Carlisle, 17:01. 3. Kolby Fritz, Carlisle, 17:02. 4. Ethan Juergens, A-D-M, 17:07. 5. Drake Van Baale, Bondurant-Farrar, 17:09. 6. Caleb Cobbs, Boone, 17:09. 7. Collin Lister, Carlisle, 17:22. 8. Jalen Petersen, Atlantic, 17:26. 9. Kobi Sadler, Carlisle, 17:27. 10. Jackson McGovern, Bondurant-Farrar, 17:32. 11. Parson Covington, Glenwood, 17:35. 12. Isaac McCleary, Bondurant-Farrar, 17:38. 13. Mason Parks, Glenwood, 17:39. 14. Clayton Stafford, Creston, 17:45. 15. Rylan Heffernan, A-D-M, 17:45.