When facing the likes of No. 5 Waukee, No. 12 Ames and teams to watch Ankeny Centennial and Iowa City West, the MHS boys just didn’t quite stack up, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t run with the other boys.

MHS finished in sixth out of the nine teams in attendance at the Marshalltown Community College Cross Country Course with a score of 183, with only Mason City beating them out of the teams that head coach Chad Pietig had circled for his boys to compete with.

“We knew who the top four teams were, the top four teams that were ranked, then there were five more teams,” Pietig said. “We don’t have a lot of opportunities to say, ‘let’s go focus on these teams and beat these teams,’ so that was our goal. I really thought we could be the fifth-place team here tonight, and they went after it.”

Even the loss to the Mohawks was an improvement from just a week prior, when the Bobcats finished 43 points behind Mason City.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“We closed the gap on them, that’s what I wanted to see them do. I wanted to see them go be competitive, go have fun and pick out those target jerseys, those teams we should be competing with,” Pietig said. “You have to learn how to do that, you have to learn that racing is not just about your time, there’s a team aspect here and we spent so much time this year as young guys learning to race that it was finally an, ‘OK, go race the teams, go after these guys.'”

Javier Rodriguez was the top Marshalltown placer, coming in 27th with a season-best time of 17 minutes, 49 seconds.

Season bests were all over the place for the Bobcats, as Eli Thiessen also broke the 18-minute barrier for the first time all year by coming in 29th with a 17:52. Conner Smith finished 35th with an 18:14, Freddy Ross was 44th with an 18:39, Zach Bitker placed 48th with an 18:46, Marcus Barker placed 50th with an 18:55 and Noah Hermanson came in 51st with a 19:00.

In the Bobcat Classic at the MCC course in early September, three of the boys didn’t break the 19-minute barrier and only one ran under 18 minutes. Pietig said to now have them all run at least 19 minutes or under, and for two to go under 18, was incredible.

“Six out of the seven guys dropped 50 seconds or more from the Bobcat six weeks ago,” he said. “That shows their hard work in the middle of the season when we were grinding and they don’t understand why we were pushing so hard. Then you start to rest around conference a little bit more and all of a sudden they feel good and get into a competitive race and all go out and kill it.”

Waukee was the top team with a 35, followed by Iowa City West with a 48 and Ames with a 63. Kolby Greiner was the top individual, as he ran a blistering 15:51 to take first for the Trojans.

Pietig said there’s reason to be hopeful for the future of Marshalltown cross country as well, as the oldest runner on Thursday was Bitker, who is a junior.

“All seven come back, there are some pretty decent eighth-graders, which I am excited to have join and build some of that competition among some of these guys,” Pietig said. “It was a learning year for us, one junior, all freshman and sophomores. I think the freshmen might have run a little tight tonight, but they all dropped time even when tight. They will learn how to handle that pressure a little better next year and probably drop more than they did this year.”

Team Standings — 1. Waukee 35, 2. Iowa City West 48, 3. Ames 63, 4. Ankeny Centennial 98, 5. Mason City 158, 6. Marshalltown 183, 7. Newton 207, 8. Waterloo 221, 9. Fort Dodge 241.

Individual Qualifiers — 1. Kolby Greiner, ICW, 15:51; 2. Aniey Akok, Ames, 16:22; 3. Travis Loecke, WAU, 16:31; 4. Jonah Vicker, AC, 16:34; 5. Moe Smith, WAU16:37; 6. Cade Simpson, WAU, 16:42; 7. Yousif Salama, ICW, 16:44; 8. Ken Wilbur, ICW,16:52; 9. Jackson Smith, WAU, 16:52; 10. Ean Warrick, Ames, 16:54; 11. Michael Rowe, MC, 16:56; 12. Ian Buske, WAU, 16:58; 13. Akol Atack, Ames, 16:59; 14. Will Conrad, ICW, 17:01; 15. Tyler Loecke, WAU, 17:02.

MARSHALLTOWN (183) — 27. Javier Rodriguez 17:49, 29. Eli Thiessen 17:52, 35. Conner Smith 18:14, 44. Freddy Ross 18:39, 48. Zach Bitker 18:46, 50. Marcus Barker 18:55, 51. Noah Hermanson 19:00.