Official Iowa HS XC 2023 Thread

They beat some average 3A teams

I'm looking forward to seeing some somewhat meaningful results today from the Ames Invite. Hempstead girls open in Iowa City today, too. Then Saturday we get Johnston, Dbq Senior and PV girls running in Bettendorf. We will all know a lot more about how things stack up after this week.

DCG results
https://onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=24889

Kirk Schmaltz invite
https://onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=24880

Norwalk won. Wow! And only 1 senior!
Valley was missing J Owen. Other than him, the team is all seniors.
Norwalk beat Ankeny too.

Good for Norwalk, always nice to get a W. But with 4 teams between 89 and 93 points it probably doesn’t mean anything for how these 4 teams will shake out in a month or two.

The impressive thing is that Norwalk only returned 3 of their top 7 from last year, so many might have said that this would be a down year for them.

But, besides the fact that the 3 guys that returned all got better, this lineup also added Groos, who was in their top 7 in 2021 but not 2022.
They also added Wallace, who was running in the 17s the last 2 years. In this meet he became their 4th man and ran a 16:28.

They're ranked. Nobody expected it to be a down year.

City High was entered along with PV girls - looks like they're sitting out in prep for Saturday

Ames was short and IC long. Both were run on power 5 dedicated courses but meet directors decide to choose their own course.

https://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=76850
Johnston boys and girls win Spartan invitational.

https://onlineraceresults.com/event/view_event.php?event_id=24896
Dowling barely beats Urbandale.
They were missing Flori (supposed to be their 1 or 2) and Bootman (was in their top 7 last year).

Dowling obviously ran a tempo here as well as cf has ran a varying tempo at first two races. Really hard to gauge anything off early season races

Sioux City North

http://www.tullyrunners.com/XC2023/Ratings_Sept%202.htm#Augustana

Johnston girls are good and really deep, looking at FS and JV results, but do not appear unbeatable. PV, with a couple frosh looks to be competitive. And Senior had a few girls take big steps forward. If they have another couple do the same they will be right with PV and Johnston. Hempstead, Senior and PV will face off next Saturday at Luther and that should be fun!

Pleasant Valley

http://www.tullyrunners.com/XC2023/Ratings_Sept%202.htm#Spartan

Augustana Twilight

http://www.tullyrunners.com/XC2023/Ratings_Sept%202.htm#Augustana

Hempstead is much better than PV. This seems like an off meet for Johnston.

One guy out and another top guy ran poorly. Maybe they will return to just being a regular podium team.

4a boys through 9.2 top 7 distribution. Obviously time isn't a great indicator with variation in course length / conditions, but to get a rough sense of where teams are at:

https://imgur.com/9xQEUPe