The Bobcats ran against a pair of top-15 ranked teams in Class 4A No. 13 Waukee and No. 14 Southeast Polk.

“Obviously looking at Conner’s 17:21, that’s a really good time against an extremely tough field,” Marshalltown head coach Chad Pietig said. “The number of top-30 ranked guys in 4A in this race today could have been overwhelming for a sophomore. I thought he handled that really well. He ran and fought with that lead pack for an all-conference place.”

Smith led Marshalltown with a 16th-place finish to earn second-team all-conference honors. Ethan Benscoter ran 18:47 to finish in 32nd place, while Anthoneih Kopsa finished in 34th with a time of 19:06. Rounding out the Bobcats’ top-five was Jason Strand, who ran 19:06 to finish 35th, and Freddy Ross, who ran 19:35 to take 38th place. Noah Hermanson ran 20:08 to finish 40th.

“On varsity, six out of seven had season-bests or lifetime-bests,” said Pietig. “I think they rose to the challenge. I would have liked to have seen us be a little bit more competitive with Mason City and Fort Dodge. We’ll get to see them again next week. So many of their guys were right in front of us so hopefully between now and next week that we can get that figured out and jump one or two places and flip the script.”

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE - MHS junior Ethan Benscoter competes in Thursday’s CIML Iowa Conference cross country meet at Marshalltown Community College. Benscoter was 32nd in a time of 18 minutes, 47 seconds.

The Bobcats finished in sixth place with 155 points. Fort Dodge finished in fifth with 131 points and Mason City took fourth place with a score of 123 points. Winning the meet was Southeast Polk with a score of 39 points.

“Everything got canceled last week so it’s been two weeks since we raced,” Pietig said. “I was a little nervous about the rest but the weather was nice. They took advantage of it and they competed hard. I think overall it was a good week of practice too. We didn’t rest our varsity guys this week. We had a good week of practice and still dropped a lot of time and had a good race. It’s a really good tune-up for next week. This meet even though there is probably six teams is just as tough as next week’s 10-team meet.”

“Conner has put himself in a spot where he is going to have to realize that he has got a shot and a legitimate chance [to make the state championship meet] if he races well next week. It’s a good tune-up if you have Southeast Polk and Waukee and Valley all-together that’s as tough as a meet as you are going to run against. We come right here on our home course again next week. It was an overall good night for us.”

Marshalltown will compete in the state-qualifying meet at the MCC course next Thursday.

CIML Iowa Conference meet

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE

At Marshalltown

BOYS

Team Standings — 1. Southeast Polk 39, 2. Waukee 44, 3. Valley 47, 4. Mason City 123, 5. Fort Dodge 131, 6. Marshalltown 155.

Individual (top 10) — 1. Drake Hanson, SP, 16:16; 2. Jack Smeins, VAL, 16:29; 3. Cade Mash, SP, 16:32; 4. Kyle Ruby, WAU, 16:35; 5. Chase Bartlett, SP, 16:42; 6. David Parks, WAU, 16:50; 7. Carter Owen, VAL, 16:54; 8. Christian Rodriguez, MC, 17:01; 9. Vincent Hodges, WAU, 17:04; 10. Jacob Arnold, VAL, 17:06.

Marshalltown (155) — 16. Conner Smith 17:21, 32. Ethan Benscoter 18:47, 34. Anthoneih Kopsa 19:06, 35. Jason Strand 19:06, 38. Freddy Ross 19:35, 40. Noah Hermanson 20:08.