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Hamann medals, ‘Hawks state-bound
by Matthew Dickinson, sports editor · Sports · October 30, 2024
The Class 4A No. 6 Iowa City High girls’ cross country team is on to the state meet after a second-place finish with 50 points at the Oct. 23 district meet held at Crow Creek Park in Bettendorf.
“We believed in ourselves, I think is what is most important on a day like this,” City High Head Coach Ryan Ahlers said. “You believe in what you’ve been doing, it’s going to come to fruition. I saw that today out of the girls, which was awesome.”
Ahlers noted that the Little Hawks have returned to this district site several years in a row, which helped the runners prepare for a course that City High also runs at early in the year.
The Little Hawks placed second to No. 1 Pleasant Valley, which has established itself as a juggernaut this year. The Spartans had the first four runners in, including senior Ani Wedemeyer, who was an All-State runner for City High last year and won the district meet at the same venue last year before transferring. The fifth and final scoring runner came in seventh for Pleasant Valley.
While City High faced a tough opponent, the Little Hawks employed an aggressive strategy. From the opening gun, the City High runners formed a tight pack at the front before settling into behind Pleasant Valley during the race. The tactic led to each of the top five runners finishing 13th or better and the last runner coming in 26th.
“I think we were 1-2-3 at the 800 mark, which is aggressive but it was like let’s see how the rhythm feels,” Ahlers said. “It shows that they’re confident. I’d rather see that today at a qualification meet than go out too easy and you’re hoping that girls are going to die off. These teams are fit, they’re hungry, they all want to qualify for state.”
The coach added that the game plan heading into the meet was to cement their status as one of the top two teams in the meet, which ended up panning out.
“It was really cool, seeing us all get out,” West Branch sophomore Grace Hamann said after competing for City High in a co-op agreement. “I glanced around and was like, ‘Where’s PV?’ I figured they [Pleasant Valley] went into knowing that they were a really good team and we were going to qualify no matter what. They ran their race a little bit conservatively, probably, definitely in the first 800.
“That was really cool. It was just like we were running in practice together, and it was a really natural feeling.”
Hamann, who is in just her second year of cross country training, placed eighth to finish second on City High and earn an individual qualifying medal. The sophomore placed on last year’s eighth place team at state and ran a 19:25 to improve significantly on her time on this course from last year’s district meet.
“It feels good,” Hamann said. “I didn’t get the time I wanted, but I’m coming off a really rough [race] last week. It feels good to get back into the rhythm of it, and I’m not done.”
The improved time and placing was a bounce-back performance from a week ago, when Hamann struggled by her standards at the Mississippi Valley Conference Divisional Meet, where she took 20th in 19:49.9 and finished sixth on the team.
The sophomore said that she worked on keeping with her premeet routines while also focusing more on getting enough sleep. Hamann felt that she “had a better mindset going into it,” which helped her on the mental side.
Ahlers said that he checked in with the sophomore following the Divisional race, and that Hamann said she had not locked into the previous race. The coach credited her ability to “reset” and mentally prepare to improve at the district level.
Joining Hamann in the top 10 was Abigail Burns, who finished sixth in 19:11 to lead City High. Burns has consistently been the top runner for the Little Hawks this season, which Ahlers attributes to her work ethic and desire to improve.
“One of her goals this season was to take her running to a new level,” the coach said. “When you go to that next level, you start expecting more from yourself. She bounced back very well today from her race at conference last week.”
Eliza Doster, Nicole Peterson, and Nina Peterson also qualified individually. Doster took 11th in 19:28, Nicole had a 12th-place 19:38, and Nina ran a 19:53 for 13th.
Calissa Fruin placed 22nd in 20:36 while Claire Locher had a 20:51 to finish 26th.
While the Little Hawks lost Wedemeyer, the team improved as a whole with another year in the program. Ahlers said that he “was really glad” to see that the City High runners knew that they could race alongside each other, which helped push the pack forward.
The Little Hawks have plenty of returning experience, with both Petersons, Burns, Hamann, and Locher coming back after running at Fort Dodge last year. City High will look to use that knowledge of the biggest stage and the course to continue the program’s development as the Little Hawks run in their fourth straight state meet.
“When you’re racing PV here on their home course, and when you think about where a lot of those girls are going to be at that state meet, you’re not that far off them,” Ahlers said. “You’ve got to have that edge about you to race and fight all of those 5,000 meters. Going into it, we came out of last year in eighth, and we’re proud of that, and even with the loss of Ani Wedemeyer we’re looking to improve on that. And I think this group is capable of that.”
Team scores: 1. Pleasant Valley 17 2. Iowa City High 50 3. Waukee 71 4. Linn-Mar 114 5. Muscatine 150 6. Bettendorf 155 7. North Scott 191 8. Davenport North 255.
City High results: 6. Abigail Burns 19:11; 8. Grace Hamann 19:25; 11. Eliza Doster 19:28; 12. Nicole Peterson 19:38; 13. Nina Peterson 19:53; 22. Calissa Fruin 20:36; 26. Claire Locher 20:51.
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