Rams second at H-10 cross country meet

Glenwood’s Janette Schraft won the individual title and the Ram girls and boys both placed second in the team standings at the Hawkeye 10 Conference Cross Country meet held at Glenwood Lake Park Thursday.

Glenwood was the fill-in host for the meet after Creston was forced to bow out due to wet conditions on their course.

The Glenwood girls just missed out on repeating as conference champions, taking runner-up honors by a single point to Harlan, 51-52. The Cyclones, ranked among the top 10 teams in state, had all five of their place winners among the top 14 finishers.

Glenwood girls coach Dani Woodman said her team was disappointed with the finish but she knows they gave it their all.

“Last year being conference champions was super exciting for the team and the girls and would have been great to do it again but I can’t say we’re heartbroken,” she said. “We know Harlan is good and we respect them and we were going after them. A lot just depends on how you run that day.”

Schraft was a wire-to-wire winner once again in taking home her first conference title. The senior joined the Rams’ team just before the season started after a standout career at East Mills. Her time of 18:10.99 on Saturday was 33 seconds better than runner-up Taylor McCreedy of Atlantic.

Woodman said it took her some time for her to mesh Schraft in with the team she joined the week of the opening meet way back in August but she said the two-time state cross country qualifier has integrated well .

“She has had a different training style than a lot of distance runners so when we came together and tried to make those things mesh, we did find a lot of those things do line up,” Woodman said. “It’s been a good thing for her. She took some time off and she looks strong. She loves to work hard and she loves the pain. It’s fun to work with her.”

Woodman thought the numbers game came down to the Rams’ fifth runner. At the conference meet, typically No. 3 or No. 4 runner Audrey McIntyre was suffering from the flu. The senior toughed it out but finished as the Rams’ sixth runner and 25th place overall.

The Rams added two more top 10 finishes with Abby McIntyre placing fifth and Lacey Jackson 10th. Erin Schultz picked up a 17th place finish to complete the Glenwood girls’ scoring.    

The Glenwood boys saw their two-year reign as Hawkeye 10 champions snapped by Council Bluffs Lewis Central. The Rams finished as the runner-up with 66 points to the Titans, with three top 10 place winners, who won the team title with 45 points.

Harlan’s Trey Gross was the individual champion.

Glenwood was led by Parson Covington’s fifth place time of 17:12.59.

Tyler Huey added a seventh place finish and Sam McIntyre was 10th to give the Rams three top 10 finishers. 17:16.20.

Mason Parks was 15th and Jacob Parks 29th to complete the Rams’ scoring.

Nathan Rohrberg, the Rams’ usual No. 5 runner, was still under the weather and finished 39th.

“Our first four guys ran really well,” said Glenwood boys coach Todd Peverill. “There were some great individual runners here and Lewis Central has a very good team. Not having Nathan healthy hurt us but the rest of the guys ran well. Jacob Parks ran a good race for our fifth runner. We didn’t run too bad for not being 100 percent healthy.”

As disappointed as the Rams were in not defending their conference title, Peverill said his team won’t let it get them down. They know Thursday’s state qualifier

“That’s where want to run our best,” he said. “And it’s looking pretty good for that. We’ll be ready. I like our chances.”

The Rams, ranked No. 15 in the state, are one of only two ranked boys teams that will run in Glenwood Thursday for the state qualifying meet. Top ranked Gilbert is the other.

The state qualifying meet is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. at Glenwood Lake Park.

Woodman is excited about the prospect of earning a second straight state bid on the Rams’ own course.

“Our goal is to be in the top three and qualify for state; we know that we’re going to have to run good races,” Woodman said. “It’s not a given by any means. But we’re confident in our training and the girls have done so much work. The mental part of the race, I don’t know if it’s the good year we had last year or having the dynamics change, but we have really grown this year to be tough in races and have good attitudes. I think we’ve prepared as much as we can and hopefully we put some good races together.”

Hawkeye 10 Conference
Girls Team Results
1. Harlan, 51. 2. Glenwood, 52. 3. Atlantic, 83. 4. Creston, 98. 5. Council Bluffs Lewis Central, 146. 6. Denison, 157. 7. Shenandoah, 175. 8. Council Bluffs St. Albert, 233. 9. Red Oak, 234.

Glenwood Girls Place Winners
1. Janette Schraft, 18:10.99. 5. Abby McIntyre, 20:02.71. 10. Lacey Jackson, 20:23.37. 17. Erin Schultz, 20:55.84. 19. Lauren Becker, 21:08.90. 25. Aubrey McIntyre, 21:16.96. 29. Abi Schultz, 21:29.31.

Boys Team Results
1. Council Bluffs Lewis Central, 45. 2. Glenwood, 66. 3. Atlantic, 83. 4. Harlan, 105. 5. Council Bluffs St. Albert, 108. 6. Red Oak, 145. 7. Denison, 169. 8. Shenandoah, 205. 9. Kuemper Catholic, 246. 10. Creston, 271. 11. Clarinda, 286.

Glenwood Boys Place Winners
5. Parson Covington, 17:12.59. 7. Tyler Huey, 17:16.20. 10. Sam McIntyre, 17:25.69. 15. Mason Parks, 17:37.21. 29. Jacob Parks, 18:26.75. 38. Trevor Warren, 18:46.42. 39. Nathan Rohrberg, 18:46.78.