Bears Bounce Back with Big Win

Your Prep Sports 

The West Branch football team rebounded from its first regular season loss in three years in typical West Branch fashion.

They ran the ball, and they ran the ball some more. And they ran the ball well in a 35-14 victory over Jesup (1-2) in the Class 1A, District 10 opener for both teams.

Senior running back Luke Lenoch ran for 229 yards and four touchdowns on 39 carries as No. 10 West Branch bounced back from a loss to 3A West Burlington/Notre Dame last week that snapped a 20-game regular season winning streak.

As a team, West Branch (2-1) racked up 268 yards on the ground on 54 attempts and improved their special teams play that struggled last week.

“We ran the ball extremely well,” West Branch head coach Butch Pedersen said. “We were extremely efficient in what we did. I thought our special teams were really key tonight, I thought we played extremely well on special teams where a week ago I thought we played really poorly.

“We spent a lot of time in practice this week on special teams and I think that paid off a lot. We had good field position a lot of the time tonight and I think that’s because we spent the extra time.”

West Branch jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the third quarter before allowing Jesup to add a pair of four-quarter touchdowns.

“I don’t think we finished as well as we could have with this game,” Pedersen said. “Overall I thought we improved a lot, I thought the kids came to play tonight. They did a lot of things fundamentally sound. They played as a group, they played as a family and that’s what we try to stress here is we run a family atmosphere. They played extremely hard and extremely well tonight.”

West Branch was playing without its starting quarterback Beau Cornwell, who suffered a broken collarbone last week against West Burlington/Notre Dame and appears to be out for the season.

Senior Brandon Rummelhart made his first career start in place of Cornwell and completed 10-of-17 passes for 171 yards and a 34-yard touchdown strike to Cooper Kabela.

Cornwell also served as The Bears’ kicker and has since been replaced by Javier Zamudio, who went 5-for-5 on point after attempts Friday night.

                                        West Branch            Jesup
First Downs                               22                    15
Rushes-Yards                             54-269             23-127
Passing Yards                             171                 196
Comp-Att-Int                             10-17-2           14-31-3
Fumbles-Lost                             1-1                   1-1
Penalties-Yards                           3-25                5-28

West Branch 7  7   14  7  –  35
Jesup             0  0    0  14 –  14

WB – Luke Lenoch 8 run (Javier Zamudio kick)
WB – Cooper Kabela 34 pass from Brandon Rummelhart (Zamudio kick)
WB – Luke Lenoch 8 run (Zamudio kick)
WB – Luke Lenoch 37 run (Zamudio kick)
JES – C. Wyant 32 pass from A. Schmidt
WB – Lenoch 4 run (Zamudio kick)
JES – 4 run

Rushing – WB: Luke Lenoch 39-226-4, Cale Donovan 12-34, Brandon Rummelhart 2-11, Jesup: B. VanBrocklin 8-56, A. Schmidt 9-33
Passing – WB: Brandon Rummelhart 10-17 171. Jesup: A. Schmidt 14-31-1
Receiving – WB: Cooper Kabela 5-75, Luke Lenoch 3-73, Cale Donovan 1-18, Tanner Lukavsky 1-5. Jesup: C. Wyant 6-121-1, B. VanBrocklin 2-13

Clippers Rally Past Wahlert to Remain Unbeaten

Clear Creek Amana senior Jared Eckrich

By Susan Harman
Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Defense, special teams and field position are the least sexy parts of winning football, but Clear Creek Amana proved their worth on Friday. In spades.

The Clippers rallied for a 24-14 victory over Dubuque Wahlert at Clipper Field to begin 3A district play and improved their record to 3-0. The Golden Eagles are 1-2, 0-1.

“I’m really proud of the guys,” Clippers co-coach Matt Hughes said. “They just kept coming all night. I can’t say enough about coach (Mark) Mitchell and the defensive staff and what they’ve done with our defense. Week in and week out those guys are keeping us in games while offensively we figure out what we want to do.”

Wahlert took the opening kickoff and drove 86 yards in 13 plays, overcoming two penalties en route, for the go-ahead touchdown. Junior running back Kelan Dickson rushed for 47 of those yards. It was not an impressive start for the defense.

“Always the first quarter seems like a chess match,” Hughes said. “Trying to figure out what we can do to exploit different situations. We found some things in the first quarter that we finally started hitting on in the second quarter.”

“The gears just kicked in and we had to get it in the end zone because they punched us in the face first, so we were going to return it,” Clipper senior Jared Eckrich said.

The Clippers adjusted and held Wahlert to two first downs the rest of the first half and forced four punts. Not only that, the defense shuttered the Wahlert offense to such an extent that the offense started second-quarter scoring possessions at the Eagle 33- and 29-yard lines.

“We changed up the stunts and everything on defense,” two-way lineman Max Moore said. “It really made a big difference.”

Clear Creek Amana tied the game early in the second quarter on a 59-yard drive. Eckrich scored on a 44-yard run after cutting outside.

“I thought it was a wrecked play at first,” Eckrich said. “I bounced it to the outside and it was open field.”

He demonstrated his strength by stiff-arming the final would-be tackler at about the 10.

“I just had to hit him,” Eckrich said.

“I think that was a big momentum changer,” Moore said. “All of us thought we could just pound the ball and really stop them on defense.”

The defense took control, holding Wahlert to minus-12 yards on its next possession and forcing a short punt from the 8-yard line. CCA took over at the Wahlert 33. Three plays later junior Cade Gallagher plunged into the line and found daylight 25 yards to the end zone for a 14-7 lead.

Again the defense pushed Wahlert back to its own 5 courtesy of a sack and an intentional grounding call. CCA took over on the Wahlert 29. Eckrich finished the short drive with a 3-yard TD run and it was 21-7.

The Clippers defense had four sacks in the first half.

“We’ve got a great defense, and they play hard with a lot of emotion and intensity,” Hughes said.

Wahlert finally put together another TD drive and cut the lead to 21-14 with 8:35 left in the fourth quarter. Then the Clipper special teams struck.

Junior Matt Brimeyer returned the kickoff from his own 5 to the Wahlert 41.

“It helped the offense out amazingly,” Eckrich said. “It just gives you so much momentum when you’re starting on the 50-yard line instead of the 10-yard line. It’s just so much easier.”

CCA started a drive to put the game out of reach. A key play came when Brimeyer converted a fourth-and-three with a big push over the left side of the line to give the Clippers a first down at the Golden Eagle 30.

Senior kicker Tyreke Williams gave CCA breathing room with a soaring 45-yard field goal with 4:26 left in the game.

Dickson finished with 136 yards on 33 carries. Wahlert outgained CCA and had more first downs. But none of that mattered because the Clippers defense won the field position battle, and their special teams were indeed special.


Dubuque Wahlert      7   0     0    7   –   14
Clear Creek Amana   0   21   0    3   –   24

DW – Noah Sigwarth run (Joseph Friend kick)
CCA – Jared Eckrich 44 run (Tyreke Williams kick)
CCA – Cade Gallagher 25 run (Williams kick)
CCA – Eckrich 3 run (Williams kick)
DW – Kelan Dickson 1 run (Friend kick)
CCA – Williams 45 field goal

                                      Wahlert             CCA
First downs                        14                  8
Rushing-yards                   44-157           38-175
Comp-Att-Int                     7-14-0           2-4-0
Passing yards                     79                  4
Punts-Avg.                         5-28               3-50
Fumbles-lost                      1-0                 2-0
Penalties-yards                   10-82            5-30

Individual Statistics
Rushing – Wahlert: Kelan Dickson 33-136, Noah Sigwarth 8-10, Kolton Bartow 2-7, William Hutchinson 1-4; CCA: Jared Eckrich 13-93, Matt Brimeyer 11-33, Cade Gallagher 3-29, Ashton Carpenter 7-18, Grant Riggan 4-2.
Passing – Wahlert: Noah Sigwarth 7-14-0-79; CCA: Ashton Carpenter 2-4-0-4.
Receiving – Wahlert: Joel Callahan 6-69, Spencer Goerdt 1-10; CCA: Jared Eckrich 1-3, Kobey Schlotman 1-1.

Solon opens district play with a convincing 42-0 win over Keokuk

Solon head coach Kevin Miller. Jackie Blake Jensen/IC Pixx

By Richard C. Lewis
Your Prep Sports 

SOLON – Kendrick Harris fumbled on his first carry. He atoned for it in a big way.

Harris darted and weaved for 158 yards and three touchdowns – all in the first half – to lead Solon to a dominating 42-0 win over Keokuk in a Class 3A, District 5 opener on Friday night at Spartan Stadium.

Harris fumbled on the Spartans’ first play of the game, giving Keokuk the ball at the Solon 31. But the Chiefs (2-1) missed a 48-yard field goal try.

Harris ran wild after that.
On the next possession, the Spartans drove 80 yards on five plays, capped by a 7-yard Harris touchdown run. Harris toted the ball on each play for the Spartans.

“There were huge holes in the line, and afterwards, I threw up, I was so overwhelmed,” said Harris, a junior and the Spartans’ leading rusher.

He added two more scores, a 27-yard run off left tackle to give Solon (2-1) a 21-0 lead and a 6-yard burst up the middle to put Solon up, 35-0, with three minutes left in the second period.

Solon junior Kendrick Harris

“It’s always that first drive, I’m jittery and everything,” Harris said. “After that, I get back to normal.”

Solon Coach Kevin Miller didn’t say a word to his running back after the opening fumble. He didn’t need to.

“What I was most pleased about is (Solon quarterback) Blayze (Griffis) took him aside and told him, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s going to be alright. Flush it,’” Miller related. “That’s the type of stuff that as a coach you like to see. You have another player grab him by the shoulder pads and say, ‘Flush it, it’s done, next play, that’s all we can control.’ I was really pleased with that.”

“I was down at first,” Harris said, “but then my coaches and my quarterback brought me up and told me we got a lot more, a lot more, so I just did that, and it showed.”

Solon rung up 42 points and piled up 329 yards of total offense by halftime. It wasn’t too far off the 435 total yards the Spartans had in the previous two games combined.

The Spartans defense held Keokuk to 103 yards for the game. The Chiefs had four turnovers and didn’t get past the Solon 26-yard line all game.

“We always put a premium on playing sound defense,” Miller said. “I was really pleased with the physicality of our defense. We ran to the football, we tackled well in space.”

Griffis completed 9 of 11 balls for 186 yards and two scores and ran for another TD. He called the win a needed bounce back game for the Spartans, who lost last week to Class 1A powerhouse Iowa City Regina, 34-0.

“Last week was obviously a tough loss to a great Regina team, and that focused us a lot,” Griffis said. “It made us have the right mindset, and we practiced with a greater sense of tempo and urgency, and it showed out here tonight.”

Miller, in his 16th season as Spartans coach, decided to change things up before district play began. He said he may be moving toward a no-huddle offense.

“Our practices were too slow in nature,” he said. “We needed to increase the tempo, in everything, from special teams to offensively, defensively, to individual drills. And, really our practices have been more productive as a result of that, and I think it’s paying off, obviously by the way we played tonight.”


                                    Solon                  Keokuk
First downs                     16                       4
Rushes-Yards                 42-255                23-48
Passing                           190                     55
Comp-Att-Int                 10-12-0                4-16-2
Fumbles-Lost                  3-3                     2-2
Penalties-Yards               3-25                   5-30

Keokuk   0   0    0  0  –  0
Solon     14  28  0  0  –  42

SOL – Kendrick Harris 7 run (Kick failed)
SOL – Blayze Griffis 2 run (Jacob Coons pass from Griffis)
SOL – Harris 27 run (Anthony Bullard kick)
SOL – Payton Bandy 34 pass from Griffis (Bullard kick)
SOL – Harris 6 run (Bullard kick)
SOL – Coons 15 pass from Griffis (Bullard kick)

Early Success No Surprise for Clippers

Clear Creek Amana senior Jared Eckrich

By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – The win-loss column shows Clear Creek Amana has come a long way under head coaches Matt and Ronnie Hughes.

From back-to-back 4-5 seasons in 2012 and 2013 to a 12-8 mark and consecutive playoff appearances the last two years it is clear the Clippers have made progress.

A 2-0 start this season, the first in the Hughes era, is another larege display of the program’s growth.

What is perhaps an even more telling sign of how far the Clippers have come is the 2-0 start to the season hasn't come as a surprise.

“I think we all knew that we had it in us,” Clear Creek Amana senior Jared Eckrich said of the 2-0 start. “I don’t think it’s been a surprise or anything.”

A year ago Clear Creek Amana lost three straight games to open the season before winning five of its final six regular season contests.

Clear Creek Amana will try to reverse that start this season when it hosts Dubuque Wahlert (1-1) in the Class 3A, District 4 opener for both teams on Friday at Clipper Field.

“We’ve struggled early in the past but this year we’ve been pretty good,” Eckrich said. “We know we can get better from here, we still have some struggles but we can polish and shine that up.”

Clear Creek Amana hasn’t just won two games to open the season, it has dominated a pair of opponents on its way to a 2-0 start.

The Clippers have outscored their first two opponents 49-8, a late touchdown in a week-one win over Mount Pleasant the only thing standing in the way of back-to-back season-opening shutouts.

Clear Creek Amana is coming off a 26-0 blanking of Independence, the first shutout for the Clippers since a 27-0 win over Davenport Assumption on Oct. 10 2014.

“I knew that we had a really good defense, we have depth that we haven’t had in the past,” Matt Hughes said. “They have just been tremendous the first couple of weeks.”

Things will get slightly tougher for Clear Creek Amana in its district opener Friday against the Golden Eagles.

Wahlert is coming off a 7-0 win over cross-town rival Dubuque Senior in which it held the Rams to 137 yards of offense.

Clear Creek Amana will be operating on offense for the first time without senior running back Drake Brezina who was lost for the season with a torn ACL in the win over Independence.

Eckrich and junior Matt Brimeyer are expected to share the burden of replacing Brezina who rushed for 285 yards in the first two games this season.

Brimeyer had a 22-yard touchdown run last week after Brezina left with his injury.

“It’s a tough thing losing a great kid like Drake but we have a lot of backs that we can go with,” Hughes said. “Guys like Jared and Matt can play for anyone.”

The change at running back won’t switch the philosophy for Clear Creek Amana which has relied on a stout defense and power run game during its 2-0 start.

The Clippers are allowing just 110 yards per game this season and holding opponents to 76 yards per game on the ground.

Just like the 2-0 start the defensive dominance hasn’t surprised anyone at Clear Creek Amana.

“I think it’s really just a mentality,” Clear Creek Amana senior Cory Siders said. “We believed that if we came together as a team we could stop anybody.”

Cascade Sweeps Regina

Regina senior Grace Swenning

By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina made things interesting late in each set in Thursday’s River Valley Conference meeting with Cascade.

It was the Cougars that made all the plays late.

Abbie Ruggeberg clinched each of the first two sets with kills and finished with a match-high 10 kills as Cascade downed Class 2A No. 13 Regina 25-23, 25-23, 25-23 in a RVC cross-divisional match at Regina.

“We were there, we were right there a couple of times,” Regina coach Kara Kimm said. “I wanted this so badly for them and I thought ‘o.k. here we go we are going to make a run’, and they shut us down and we got in our heads and we had nothing.”

The loss snapped a six-match winning streak top open the season for Regina (6-1) which dropped to 1-1 in RVC play.

Neither team had a lead bigger than five in any set in a back-and-forth match that saw Cascade (7-6, 3-0 RVC) come up with the big plays late.

“In order to be successful this season we are really trying to focus on finishing matches,” Cascade coach Mary Frake said. “Everybody has to play their role on the team in order to do that and we are working hard to do that right now.”

Regina led 8-5 early in the opening set before Cascade used a 6-0 run to take a 14-10 advantage.

The Regals climbed back into the opening set and trailed just 23-22 after an Alexa Lehman kill.

Regina fought off a set point on a kill by Sarah Lehman that made the score 24-23 but Ruggeberg ended the opening set with a kill.

“That’s a great team and they were putting it in spots that we weren’t,” Kimm said of Cascade. “That’s sometimes the type of volleyball you have to play.”

Cascade took control of the match in the second set, rallying from deficits of 8-5 and 18-16 to take a two sets to none lead.

The Cougars used a 6-0 run that featured a kill by Kelly Bergfeld, a Lisa Tucker ace block and an ace serve by Kendra Johnson to turn an 18-16 deficit into a 22-18 lead they would never give up.

Regina closed to 24-23 on a Cascade hitting error but Ruggeberg clinched the win with her fifth kill of the set.

“We got up and I think we got comfortable and I don’t know why because there was no reason we should be,” Regina senior Grace Swenning said. “I think we were just having an off night and we got comfortable when we shouldn’t.”

Regina led 15-10 in the third before another Cascade rally.

The Cougars scored six straight to take the lead and took control of the match with a 3-0 spurt that make it 19-17.

Seven Cascade points during its 9-2 run came as the result of Regina errors.

“We weren’t talking tonight and we weren’t shaking off our errors,” Swenning said. “We weren’t communicating well.”

Regina again trailed 24-23 after a Lehman kill but a net violation resulted in the final point for Cascade.
Lehman finished with nine kills for Regina and was the center of the defensive focus for Cascade.

Katrina Chambliss had seven kills while Alexa Lehman and Wolfe each had five kills for Regina.

“Coming in the keys to the game were just staying strong on serve receive and defense and controlling Lehman and trying to keep her out of the game as much as possible,” Frake said. “We have some good height on our team and our girls do a pretty good job of moving around and getting their hands on balls which helps our defense tremendously.”

Regina   23   23    23
Cascade 25   25    25

(Kills-aces-blocks)
Regina
Katrina Chambliss 7-3-0, Grace Swenning 0-1-0, Sarah Lehman 9-0-0, Alexa Lehman 5-0-0, Olivia Wolfe 5-0-3, Katie Dunn 4-0-1, Katelyn Murhammer 0-1-0, Team 30-4-5
Assists – Grace Swenning 24.

Cascade
Lisa Tucker 4-0-1, Rachel Trumm 3-0-2, Kelly Bergfeld 4-0-0, Abbie Ruggeberg 10-0-1, Brittany Koppes 0-1-0, Kendra Johnson 0-2-0, Shannon Rogers 4-0-0, Team 25-4-4.
Assists – Anna Hunt 17, Shannon Rogers 1.

Greiner, Ali Pace West High at Cedar Rapids Invite

West High sophomore Kolby Greiner

By Susan Harman
Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Kolby Greiner was a fright from head to toe, but his grin cut through the grime.

Greiner’s fourth-place finish along with teammate Ali Ali’s fifth-place helped lead Iowa City West to a runner-up finish at the Cedar Rapids Invitational cross country meet Thursday at Seminole Valley park.

Cedar Rapids Prairie, ranked fourth in 4A, was the winner with 59 points, 36 points better than the sixth-ranked Trojans. Linn-Mar’s Ryan Murphy won the individual title in 15:59.13.

City High was third, just three points back of West and was led by Michael Berg’s seventh-place finish.

Greiner, a sophomore, finished in 16:17.49 and Ali in 16:22.16.

“It was a really muddy race, you know?” Greiner said. “I came through that first mile and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is fast.’ 5:01, you know. After that first mile I thought I’m feeling good, I’m feeling great, and I look over my shoulder and see my teammate Ali Ali there. He’s a great character. I knew I had to go with him. I’m really happy for him because he had a PR, like 30 seconds."

Wednesday’s hard rains left the course soft, and mud was flying by the time the boys varsity ran.

City High's Michael Berg

“I hope I don’t get any diseases,” Greiner cracked. “It was bad.”

Ali, a senior, was pleased with his PR, particularly at this stage of the season.

“I did have a PR; it was absolutely unexpected,” he said. “I never run with a plan. It just happens organically. (Greiner)’s usually at the front where I want to be. I just keep passing people, and I get there eventually. I’m really happy with what I did, but Kolby did amazing too. He was right there with me, and he passed me at the end.”

West coach Brian Martz would like to see a closer connection between the top two and some of the rest of the runners.

“Our focus is on our team improving right now,” Martz said. “We just have such a huge gap between our second and third runner and from our third to fourth and fifth and sixth.

“(An assistant pointed out) we’re just not very race aware right now. We need to tune in a little bit better. We had improvements on the clock today, that’s great. But the bottom line is where you place, and we’ve got to find a way to compete a little bit better.”

Berg finished in 16:36.44. Matthew Dodge was 13th in 16:46.16, and Michael Taylor was 15th in 16:49.20 for the Little Hawks.

“It was a really hot race and it was really muddy, but it’s a cross-country race,” Berg said. “We have to get used to it. Everyone on our team did pretty well today.

“I just wanted to stay with the lead pack, stay in contact as much as possible for as long as possible and see where it got me. And it worked. I’m very pleased with how that race went.”

City High coach Jayme Skay couldn’t resist divulging that Berg recently scored a perfect 36 on his ACT test.

The coach was also happy with the way his group competed considering the hard training they are undergoing early in the season.

“Last year we were a little bit more focused on speed early and doing what we can to make sure we get to state,” Skay said. “This year we want to not just make it to state, we want to make a statement. We want to do the best that we can to put us back on the map. So it was surprising with the heat and humidity and the training that we’ve been doing.”

Top-ranked Pleasant Valley was ninth. The Spartan lineup did not include any of the seven runners who competed last Saturday in their own invitational in which they finished second to Edina, Minn., and beat Prairie. Ten ranked teams competed in the boys race.

Cedar Rapids Invitational
Seminole Valley park
Team results – 1. C.R. Prairie 59; 2. Iowa City West 95; 3. Iowa City High 98; 4. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 131; 5. Linn-Mar 136; 6. Muscatine 177; 7. Marion 186; 8. Davenport West 257; 9. Pleasant Valley 287; 10. C.R. Washington 290; 11. Dubuque Wahlert 326; 12. C.R. Xavier 326; 13. C.R. Kennedy 331; 14. Waterloo West 349; 15. Davenport Central 399; 16. C.R. Jefferson 404; 17. Bettendorf 411; 18. North Scott 436.

Individual Results – 1. Ryan Murphy (LM) 15:59.13; 2. Jeremy Fopma (Mar) 16:03.24; 3. Myles Bach (Mar) 16:08.21; 4. Kolby Greiner (ICW) 16:17.49; 5. Ali Ali (ICW) 16:22.16; 6. Cam Steffens (CRP) 16:31.25; 7. Michael Berg (ICH) 16:36.44; 8. Alex Bautista (Mus)16:37.89; 9. Eiljah Vlasek (CRP) 16:39.03; 10. Andrew Wright (DW) 16:41.68.

Iowa City West (95) – 4. Greiner 16:17.49; 5. Ali 16:22.16; 20. Andrew Murley 17:09.72; 29. Kyle Sulwer 17:21.66; 37. Jared Bailey 17:29.14; 42. Ethan Trepka 17:31.97; 69. Derek Nugent 17:57.53.

Iowa City High (98) – 7. Berg 16:36.44; 13. Matthew Dodge 16:46.16; 15. Michael Taylor 16:49.20; 27. Quenton Max17:19.42; 36. Lucas Firmstone 17:28.91; 50. Caden Turnbough 17:37.95; 55. Oliver Shabani 17:41.92.

West High edges City High to Win Cedar Rapids Invitational

West High senior Gabby Skopec

By Susan Harman
Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Without conceding the future, City High girls cross country coach Tom Mittman did concede the day at the Cedar Rapids Invitational.

“Obviously we’re not up to West at this point. They were stronger than us in the last mile, half mile,” he said. “I think their training is a little ahead of ours. My hat’s off to them, but we’ll see where we are in October.”

The second-ranked Women of Troy won the second head-to-head meeting of the two Iowa City schools this season, capturing the prestigious Cedar Rapids meet Thursday at Seminole Valley park. Nine ranked girls teams competed.

West finished with 55 points, 10 better than the runner-up Little Hawks. West senior Gabby Skopec won the meet in 18 minutes, 56.81 seconds, almost 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Hannah Frazee of Cedar Rapids Prairie.

“Gabby showed she’s here to try to win every race that we’re in,” West coach Mike Parker said. “She’s a senior who’s on a mission.”

“I wanted to be in the lead but me and my coach talked about strategy, and I didn’t want to leave it to a last kick,” Skopec said. “The last two to three miles that’s when I want to be going strong.”

She took the lead fairly early and cruised comfortably the rest of the way.

City High senior Mary Arch

“I was just kind of running my pace, like where I wanted to run,” she said. “I felt good. My PR was 19:08 and I wanted to beat that. This course is kind of fast, but it was kind of sloppy out there today.”

West’s Bailey Nock, who was seventh at state a year ago, was sixth, Claire Ronnebaum eighth, Jessie Skopec 17th and Deniz Ince was 27th.

“It was pretty gross,” Nock said of the muddy footing. “But that’s part of the sport is not running on smooth, flat surfaces.”

Nock wasn’t particularly happy with her finish, saying she needs to work on her race preparation.

“I definitely did not run the race I wanted to run,” she said. “I didn’t run calmly. I mentally was struggling. I worked all summer on the physical part. Now I’ve got to get the mental part.”

Parker was particularly pleased with Jessie Skopec’s finish.

“Gabby ran well, but her sister coming in the fourth spot made a gigantic difference for us,” he said. “In the last 200 there was nothing left in the tank. She figured out a way to get across the line.

“Claire Ronnebaum was our sixth or seventh runner a year ago, and now she’s fighting in there with Bailey all the way to the finish. Those kinds of things give us a chance in the end.”

Senior Mary Arch finished ninth to lead the third-ranked Little Hawks. She said she struggled at the Pleasant Valley meet last Saturday but felt stronger this time out.

“I got out kind of fast but not too fast,” she said. “I wanted to just stick with Bailey Nock the whole time.”

City senior Emily Bywater was 10th, Anna Lindower 12th, Esti Brady 19th and Bridget Brown 20th.

“I thought we competed really well today,” Mittman said. “Mary had a great race, but apparently faded a little at the end. Emily had a great race. I can’t say enough about her hard work. She’s just a model of a cross-country runner. She just keeps getting better every year.

Our fourth and fifth girls ran better today. I think we’ve made progress since Pleasant Valley (last Saturday). Esti is a freshman, and she took a huge step forward today.”

Cedar Rapids Invitational Girls Cross Country
Seminole Valley park, Cedar Rapids
Team results – 1. Iowa City West 55; 2. Iowa City High 65; 3. Pleasant Valley 123; 4. Bettendorf 128; 5. Linn-Mar 137; 6. Muscatine 143; 7. North Scott 207; 8. Dubuque Wahlert 209; 9. Ames 217; 10. C.R. Prairie 251; 11. C.R. Kennedy 261; 12. Marion 328; 13. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 335; 14. C.R. Xavier 345; 15. C.R. Jefferson 481; 16. Waterloo West 498; 17. Davenport West 513; 18. Davenport Central 545; C.R. Washington did not field a full

Individual Results – 1. Gabby Skopec (ICW) 18:56.81; 2. Hannah Frazee (CRP) 19:15.66; 3. Brina Kraft (Mus) 19:19.74; 4. Ally Gallagher (Bet) 19:20.69; 5. Reagan Gorman (CRW) 19:28.71; 6. Bailey Nock (ICW) 19:29.91; 7. Trinity Borland (Bet) 19:31.26; 8. Claire Ronnebaum (ICW) 19:33.67; 9. Mary Arch (ICH) 19:36.89; 10. Emily Bywater (ICH) 19:41.40.

West High (55) – 1. G. Skopec 18:56.81; 6. Nock 19:29.91; 8. Ronnebaum 19:33.67; 17. Jessie Skopec 20:1l.14; 27. Deniz Ince 20:38.57; 34. Olivia Moore 20:52.22; 57. Chloe Holt 21:36.65.

City (65) – 9. Arch 19:36.89; 10. Bywater 19:41.40; 12. Anna Lindower 19:53.51; 19. Esti Brady 20:16.65; 20. Bridget Brown 20:19.08; 29. Annie Rummelhart 20:43.56; 31. Kinsee Brands 20:47.58.