Panthers take best H10 finish in 12 years

SHENANDOAH — A young Creston boys cross country team soared from a 10th-place finish in 2024 to fourth this season in the Hawkeye 10 at the conference meet Thursday in Shenandoah. Fourth is the highest the boys have placed since the 2013 state-qualifying team that placed third in the H10.

“The guys ran a really great race,” coach Maggie Arnold said. “Two teams were state-ranked (Red Oak and Shenandoah in 2A), Lewis Central is a strong team in 4A and Kuemper Catholic and Carroll have a co-op team this year. We knew those were the teams we were shooting for.”

Red Oak and Lewis Central battled it out for gold. Though the Titans had the first two finishers, it was the Tigers who came out on top with 71 points compared to Lewis Central’s 73.

In third was Kuemper Catholic, scoring 122 points. Fourth place was a tie between Shenandoah and Creston, each scoring 127. The tiebreaker scores the sixth runners, and the Panthers came out on top.

In his conference debut, freshman Ryder Baird cracked the top 10 with a ninth-place finish, running 17:12.17. In a strong show at the finish, he crossed less than a second ahead of St. Alberts junior Jackson Walter.

The time is the fifth-fastest at the conference meet by a Panther, with only marks by Scott Vicker, Cooper McDermott and Jay Wolfe coming in faster. Baird improved on his course time of 17:42.54 from the Shenandoah Early Bird in August.

Coming through next for Creston was junior Wyatt Goodenberger, running a 17:56.81 to take 17th place and the second all-conference performance by the Panther boys.

Arnold said third and fourth runners Matthew Warner and Merrick Wieland had outstanding scoring performances. Their marks were a huge asset to the team’s final score.

On this course in August, Warner ran a 20:33.09. Thursday, he ran 18:11.73, finishing 23rd, just outside the all-conference mark of top 20.

Wieland also had a major improvement, lowering his time from 19:58.64 to 18:22.48, finishing 26th.

The lone senior on the boys squad, Hector Suazo, was the fifth runner for the Panthers, coming in at 52nd, running a 19:33.29. This tops his previous course best of 20:07.92.

Though only five runners score traditionally, this was a race that came down to the sixth runner — sophomore Austin Jondle. In a draw, the team whose sixth runner finished first wins the tiebreaker.

Jondle finished 62nd, running 20:04.88. The time was nearly a minute quicker than his previous course mark of 20:57.61 ran in August. The Mustangs’ sixth runner, Greyson Kinghorn, finished just six seconds after Jondle, running 20:10.66, placing 64th.

Creston’s varsity lineup was finished by Johnathon Henry who ran 21:28.21, finishing 72nd. He cut a minute off his August course time.

"The boys team made tremendous progress this season,“ Arnold said. ”Last season, they finished the Hawkeye 10 in 11th place. With all but one scorer returning next season, they have big goals ahead.“

But before next season comes, the Panthers have a state-qualifying meet to tackle Wednesday at Central College in Pella.

The team competition will be extremely tough, including Canaan Dunham of Pella with the third-fastest Class 3A time clocked this season at 14:54. Dunham leads a strong team with the next three runners under 17 minutes and two more under 18. The Dutch are ranked second in Class 3A.

Three other ranked teams will be competing as well for a shot to qualify for the state meet — Clear Creek-Amana (No. 6), ADM (No. 10) and Carlisle (No. 18).

From each of the class 4A, 3A and 2A state qualifying meets, the first three teams, plus the first 15 individual place winners, will qualify for the state meet.

TEAM SCORES

Red Oak 71

Lewis Central 73

Kuemper Catholic/Carroll 122

Creston 127

Shenandoah 127

St. Albert 153

Harlan 155

Denison-Schleswig 159

Atlantic 167

Glenwood 192

Clarinda 254