Preston Johnson had to know the truth, and now he does.

The Marshalltown junior distance dynamo got the answer to his question in finishing second at the 52nd Bobcat Invite on Thursday night at Marshalltown Community College.

Johnson finished just more than four seconds behind Cedar Falls senior Jaden Merrick, the defending Class 4A state runner-up, with a new Marshalltown school record time of 15 minutes, 0.5 seconds.

“It feels good, but I’m really focused on just getting Jaden and whoever else comes at that state title,” Johnson said of the school record. “And no matter what the time is, (I’m) just really focusing on the competition rather than the time.”

Merrick won in 14:56.2, separating himself from Johnson at the top of the long straightaway approaching the finish line and keeping that hard-earned margin for the final 300 meters.

It helped Johnson answer the question he couldn’t wait to have answered ahead of their next potential meeting — at state.

“I wanted to see if I could stick with the most likely state champion and just see how long I could stick with him,” Johnson said of Merrick. “I thought I’d try to throw a surge on at the end and I stuck with him until the last 300, but he just had a little extra gear. I was right there, and I’m excited to keep training, get a tune-up and see what I can do at state.”

Johnson ran at Merrick’s heels or on his hip pretty much the whole race, but one big push entering the homestretch made the difference at the finish line. Merrick pulled ahead, but he couldn’t pull away.

“Throughout the race I felt like every single downhill he tried to throw in a big surge that would separate himself, but I did a really good job of staying right there with him,” Johnson said. “It was just that last surge he really committed to it and we were both going pretty fast on that straightaway. I didn’t really let up any but he really had that last gear.”

Johnson led a Bobcat squad that finished 17th in the 23-team invitational, trailing 13 ranked 4A squads along with Urbandale in 14th (338), Ames in 15th (341) and Ankeny in 16th (349). Marshalltown took 17th with 383 points.

Fifth-ranked Indianola impressed with a first-place finish with only 66 team points, well ahead of top-rated Cedar Falls (111).

“People ask to get into this meet,” said MHS head coach Chad Pietig. “We’re centrally located, you’ve got eastern Iowa coming in and the Des Moines area schools coming in and knocking each other around, and then they go back their separate ways.

“It’s really cool to have that, our administration supports it, it’s awesome that MCC supports it, and we hear nothing but positive things about the course.”

Marshalltown, which ran the season-opening Bobcat Early Bird on the same course, cut a combined 2 minutes, 38 seconds, off its total time with Thursday’s return to MCC. Johnson set the tone by taking 25 seconds off his winning time from the Early Bird, and 11th-place finisher Carter Nunn knocked another 55 seconds off his performance from that late August meet. Nunn finished less than two seconds out of a top-10 finish.

“I wanted to break 16 (minutes) for sure because the last time I ran here was 16:45,” said Nunn, a senior. “Last week at Ames I ran 15:30 or something, but that’s short and there’s no hills whatsoever. So I was just hoping to be somewhere in between there for sure, but I still have more in the tank.

“This is kind of like state for me, I really just wanted to see how well I can finish.”

Myles Goldman and Costin Piscitelli finished consecutively at 122 and 123 with respective times of 18:08.3 and 18:17.8. Kade Randall came in at 18:42.9 to round out the team scoring in 128th. Thomas Stanley (138, 19:19.3) and Michael Downs (146, 20:00.9) also competed for the ‘Cats.

“As a whole program, we wanted to improve over two weeks ago,” Pietig said in comparison with the Bobcat Early Bird. “I think most of the guys did that. Today was a little bit warmer than when we ran here two weeks ago, so you’ve got to factor that in, but I think for the most part most of us improved from two weeks ago. That was the number one goal: show growth.”

Piscitelli, a freshman, showed the most forward movement by taking 1:14 off his time from the Early Bird.

“He just keeps dropping time,” Pietig said. “He has no idea what he has in the tank, so right now he’s learning, he’s pacing himself with those upperclassmen. Eventually he’s going to have to just go.”

East Marshall, with only five competing runners, came in last out of 23 scoring teams with 703 points. Chandler Curtis led the Mustangs in 131st place (18:51.8).

BCLUW was one of two teams with fewer than five competitors. The Comets were led by Tommy Hinderhofer in 143rd place (19:48.2).

Morrison leads MHS girls

The Marshalltown girls finished 15th out of 17 scoring teams with a 486 total, ahead of Des Moines Hoover (500) and East Marshall (509).

Anessa Morrison, the lone Bobcat senior on the varsity squad, led the way with an 89th-place finish and a time of 22:19.9 in her last trek around the Bobcat Invite. Marshalltown will host its state-qualifying meet on Oct. 22.

“I’m grateful for that, yeah, so this isn’t quite the last one yet,” Morrison said. “We still have one more to look forward to.”

Morrison, with a 42-second time drop from the Bobcat Early Bird two weeks ago, actually cut less time than the rest of her squad. Grace Whitmore was 95th in 22:40.6, followed by Mallory Meyeraan (100, 26:13.6), Lily Johnson (103, 23:40.7), Airi Hoven (112, 26:04.8) and Sophia Valdex Chavez (113, 27:28.2).

“It’s a lot of mixed feelings because I love this meet,” said Morrison. “Each year is a different memory for me with a different team, and I’m so proud of our team this year. We’ve done such a good job of sticking together and trying to improve throughout the season, and I’m really happy with how we did today.”

East Marshall finished last out of 17 scoring teams with 509 points while also producing the top area finisher in Sydney Hull. The Mustang junior took 79th place in 21:46.3.

BCLUW’s trio of runners were led by Isabella Stotts in 108th (24:39.8).