PCM’s Ellens gets the gold at state qualifier

PELLA — Prairie City-Monroe senior Chris Ellens will tell you he wasn’t very good his first two seasons as a cross country runner.

After his sophomore season, Ellens didn’t want to be left out of the medals handed out after races anymore.

He went to work, got after it and the end result has been nothing short of remarkable.

Ten days after winning the Heart of Iowa Conference title, Ellens was impressive again in the Class 2A state qualifier in Pella on Thursday. The Mustang senior got out to an early lead, pulled away after the first mile and then sprinted his way to another championship.

This time, Ellens locked up his second straight state berth with a personal-best time of 16 minutes, 34.2 seconds.

Ellens ran all by himself for the final two miles. Ranked eighth, Ellens should be one of the favorites at next weekend’s state meet in Fort Dodge.

“After my sophomore year, I just told myself that I wanted to get some of those awards and run with the guys up front,” Ellens said. “I’m competitive, and once I decided to do that, I didn’t look back. I stuck with the goal and just showed that hard work does make a difference.”

Ellens was one of three area harriers who punched their tickets to the state meet. Collins-Maxwell/Baxter sophomore Ian Thomson advanced with a ninth-place finish, and his teammate, freshman Logan Berg, locked up a state berth by finishing in the 15th and final position.

“I was nervous at the start. We were in the middle boxes. We got pinched in their at the start,” CMB coach Jerry Meinerts said. “They had to work hard to get back in there. We preached patience, and thankfully, they got back up toward the front.”

CMB finished one spot out of advancing its entire team. The Raiders were fourth in the team standings with 141 points. Third-ranked Mid-Prairie won the meet with 57 points, while 10th-ranked East Marshall (81) and seventh-ranked Aplington-Parkersburg (94) secured the other two qualifying spots.

The Raiders finished five points ahead of Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck (146). The rest of the 14-team field included 12th-ranked Dike-New Hartford (158), Pella Christian (175), Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (208), West Marshall (216), Davis County (227), Van Buren (280), PCM (285), Albia (297) and Centerville (374).

“It was tough to finish fourth, but it wasn’t like it was 10 points off third,” Meinerts said. “A lot of teams tried to finish fourth, and they couldn’t. A rated team tried to finish fourth but couldn’t. So it was a good day overall.

“We had a lot of setbacks this year. If we could have stayed healthy, we may have been able to make up that gap, but it is what it is. We competed hard, and all you can ask for is to run your best times at this meet, and we did that today.”

There were nine ranked runners in the boys’ 5K field. Ellens was the highest ranked runner, and by the time he completed the Central College course, he showed why.

“I actually told him today after this race that he needs to start thinking about winning state,” PCM coach Eric Karr said. “It’s not an expectation and there’s no extra stress. There’s just a serious chance for him.

“He ran two miles by himself and set a personal record. That’s crazy. I don’t know if he knows at this point how to lose. That may be the case.”

CMB’s Thomson also had a personal-record time Thursday. The Raider sophomore finished ahead of 13th-ranked Floyd Evans of Mid-Prairie with a time of 17:18.6. He is now a two-time state qualifier.

“It feels great to be going back to state, and to have my best time come at this meet is awesome,” Thomson said. “That’s always the goal.”

Berg had to scratch and claw his way to his first state meet. The freshman was outside the top 15 with a half mile left. He got into the mix with a few passes but dropped back out of it. That’s when he shifted gears with 300 meters left.

“I could see it in Logan’s eyes when he made the passes late to get into the top 15,” Meinerts said. “When he came up that final corner, and got by the Davis County runner, I knew it was over. That’s so exciting for him. He wants to be a four-time qualifier so he’s off to a great start.”

Berg said he could hear the crowd telling him where he was sitting in the standings.

“I could hear the crowd telling me that I was a few positions off so once I caught up to a few of them, I was told to keep that pace,” Berg said. “I tried my best to do that.”

Here are the complete results for the two area teams from Thursday’s meet:

Boys

1. Chris Ellens, Sr., 16:34.2, PCM

9. Ian Thomson, So. 17:18.6, CMB

15. Logan Berg, Fr. 17:33, CMB

34. Carter Fricke, Jr., 18:44.5, CMB

39. Noah Rhoades, Jr., 19:04.5, CMB

44. Josh Bruntz, So., 19:13, CMB

56. Max Van Maanen, Jr., 19:28, CMB

65. Jason Stafford, Fr. 19:55.9, PCM

74. Caleb Peter, Jr., 20:42.8, PCM

75. Mark Bruxvoort, Sr., 20:47.4, PCM

77. Jacob Cox, Fr., 20:52.6, PCM

82. Brendyn Padget, So., 21:14.8, CMB

92. Carson Clark, So., 21:53.7, PCM

97. Blake VanDerKamp, Fr., 22:31.7, PCM