States |
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Iowa
2002 Cross Country |
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State Meet 11/2/02 |
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Featured three nationally ranked teams: #10 Roosevelt Des Moines boys and #7 Iowa City West girls. and US#11 Iowa City girls. In the girls race, Iowa City beat their cross town rivals.
Iowa runners saved their best for last at the state high school cross country championship, held in Fort Dodge on Saturday. And while the Class 3A boys race went as expected, the girls race was full of surprises. #7 Iowa City West was favored to "three-peat" a team title this year, but fell to their cross town rivals, #11 Iowa City High. City High won with 61 points, followed by West at 87. West Des Moines Valley had a solid third-place finish with 116 points. A reverse upset occured in the quest for the individual title. Junior Jennie Funk of Iowa City High, last year's runner-up, was favored to capture the crown after successfully coming back from a summer injury. While she led a very competitive field for most of the race, Funk dropped back to 5th place during the final third of the race. Senior Robdu Adam of Iowa City West won the individual title with a time of 14:07 (the best time of the season), followed by junior Sara Fassbinder of Dubuque Wahlert at 14:19 and senior Kate Greer of Marshalltown at 14:20. Hannah Roeder of Des Moines Roosevelt was the top freshman in the meet with a 7th place finish of 14:39. Adam's time is the new girls record in Iowa; this is the first year girls ran a 4K distance. In all, 20 girls ran a time of 15:00 or better, the unofficial mark for "elite" times in the new 4K format. In the boys race, #10 Des Moines Roosevelt was a heavy favorite to win a second consecutive team title and did not disappoint. Roosevelt won in convincing fashion with a team score of 51, thanks to claiming three of the top seven positions, followed by two suburban rivals: West Des Moines Valley (99) and Ankeny (164). Four of Roosevelt's top five runners will be back next year. The battle for the boys' individual title saw the top finishers being those ranked at the top for all of this season. Ryan McCurnin of Mason City took the honors with a time of 15:21, the fifth best time ever in an Iowa state championship. Rounding at the top five were Joe Morgan of Clinton (15:27), Justin Vaught of Valley (15:33), Austin Williamson of Roosevelt (15:42) and Chris Lawson of Ankeny (15:46). A dozen runners broke the 16:05 mark.
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