Conner Smith

PELLA — Marshalltown High School senior Conner Smith came in 26th out of 283 runners in the 16th Heartland Classic on Saturday at Central College as the Bobcat cross country teams competed in a Midwest regional extravaganza.

Thirteen teams from Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota joined some of the top schools from across Iowa for a mega-meet. Marshalltown, scoring 800 points as a team, came in 30th out of 42 scoring teams.

Smith crossed the finish line in a time of 16 minutes, 26.9 seconds, to lead Marshalltown. Dubuque Hempstead senior Derek Leicht won the meet in 15:37.3, Iowa City West’s Alex McKane was second (15:40.4) and Millard West (Omaha) senior Sam Kirchner (15:40.8) was third.

For Marshalltown, juniors Anthoneih Kopsa (18:04.4) and Jason Strand (18:05.2) finished 151st and 153rd overall, while Marco Herrera crossed in 229th (19:17.2). Freshman John Moellers was next in for the Bobcats in 249th (19:43.2), followed by Andrew Kodis (268th, 20:32.5) and Diego Teada (278th, 21:34.1).

Millard West won the meet with just 65 points, Sioux City North was second with 98 points and Fremont (Neb.) was third at 117.

The Bobcat girls placed 28th out of 36 scoring teams with 779 points, paced on this day by Micah Blevins in 104th place (21:32.7) and Veronica Herrera in 112th (21:40.9). Rachel Smith was next to cross in 181st position (23:22.8), Grace Rasmussen was 205th (24:15.2) and Sydney Hotchkiss was 209th (24:29.6) to round out the team scoring. Taylor Hoffman finished in 223rd (28:59.8).

The race’s top three finishers were freshmen. Sydney Drevolw of Hopkins (Minn.) won in a time of 18:03.8, Grace Boleyn of Pleasant Valley was runner-up in 18:14.5, and Daphne Grobstein of Hopkins was third (18:17.5).

Des Moines Roosevelt won the meet with 129 points, Pleasant Valley picked up second with 151 and Dowling Catholic was third at 165.