Smock flips script against Pella, wins in Grinnell

GRINNELL — Lynnville-Sully senior Greenlee Smock was not happy with her time at Central College during a meet hosted by Pella on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Smock went under 20 minutes for the first time this season and turned in a career-best performance at the Grinnell Invitational.

She got some redemption against a trio of ranked Pella runners as she won the girls’ 5K race against a very tough field at Ahrens Sports Complex.

“It gives me confidence. It makes me feel good,” Smock said. “Every day is a different day. Some days you are going to have good races and some days it could be a bad race. This just shows I can go out and compete with anybody.”

There were five other ranked individuals in the field on Tuesday and Class 1A No. 10 Smock was the best of them all, winning in a career-best time of 19 minutes, 47 seconds.

The top 15 finishers in each varsity race earned a medal. The other area harrier to grab a medal was Newton’s Hadley Kruse, who finished 14th in a season-best 21:46.

Sometimes Kruse knows where she’s sitting amongst the field throughout the race. She had no idea where she was on Tuesday and was a bit surprised when a race worker handed her a medal.

“Sometimes I’m aware, but I had no idea today where I was at in the mix,” Kruse said. “I thought I was like 20th. I was happy when I crossed and they gave me a medal.”

The Cardinals finished one spot ahead of Lynnville-Sully in the team standings. Newton scored 169 points in sixth, while the Hawks, who were without No. 2 runner Olivia Norrish because of an injury, were seventh with 192.

“There were a lot of ranked teams at the meet tonight so it was nice to see the team take advantage of that good competition.” Newton girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said.

Class 3A No. 5 Pella won the meet championship with 33 points. The Dutch put all seven runners in the top 21 positions.

Class 2A No. 4 Williamsburg placed its five scoring runners in positions 10-11-12-13-20 and finished second with 66 points. Class 3A No. 18 Carlisle was third with 93.

The rest of the top five included Cedar Rapids Xavier (114) and Benton Community (121). Finishing behind Newton and Lynnville-Sully were Knoxville (197), Grinnell (202) and BGM (287).

“The high school runners had run very well the first two meets so I was curious to see how they would come out tonight,” L-S cross country coach Darin Arkema said. “This course was very similar to the course in Williamsburg — very flat and long stretches without many turns. Most of the teams here were 3A schools so we were up against some good competition.”

Smock is trying to change her race strategy in her final season. In past years, she was content on running her pace early and then chasing down the competition through the 5K course.

This season, Smock will try to get out fast, stay out front and lead from the start. That’s exactly what she did on Tuesday.

“I’m kind of playing with my strategy and maybe changing it up a bit,” Smock said. “I know I want to get out a little bit faster this year. I want to get out and stay out. I was able to do that.”

At Saturday’s race at Central College, the Pella trio of Raegan Snider, Autumn Blink and Marissa Ferebee all ran faster than Smock.

The Hawk senior flipped the script in the latest meeting though. She ran more than a minute faster three days later while Snider, Blink and Ferebee all ran similar times to their home meet. Snider, who is ranked 13th in 3A, was the runner-up in 20:08.9.

“I was more mentally prepared today for this race,” Smock said. “In other races, when I got uncomfortable I would back it down a bit. Today, I was comfortable being uncomfortable.”

The girls’ 5K race featured six ranked runners.

Newton’s Kruse was the top Cardinal finisher in 14th. Kate Muckler also ran a season-best time in 22:12 and finished 19th.

“It’s going well so far. I’m still working on having better posture and keeping my head up,” Kruse said when asked what she’s working on to get faster. “I want to keep my pace for longer and not get worn down as much so that needs work still.

“I’m trying to go faster in practices because I think that will for sure help my times.”

The other scoring runners for Newton included Paxton Panada (25:09.8) in 42nd, Bella Winther (25:31) in 43rd and Abbie Preston (27:42.3) in 55th.

Jessie Hutchinson (31:11.8) and Cameron Sharp (31:12.5) were 61st and 62nd as non-scoring runners, respectively.

Winther ran a season-best time, while Panada, Preston and Sharp all turned in career bests.

“Hadley and Kate did a great job getting in the mix, and Hadley fought well at the end to hold a medaling position,” Tipton said. “Paxton just kept making moves and never settled. It was an excellent time drop and hopefully a confidence booster.”

The Hawks were down to just the five scoring runners without Norrish. After Smock came Kendra Fikse (25:09.2) in 41st, Brooke Conover (26:56) in 48th, Corrina Rozendaal (27:25.4) in 53rd and Laura Fikse (27:43.8) in 56th.

“Greenlee was very focused and took control of the race early on and not only won her second meet of the season but also set a 5K PR by 2 seconds,” Arkema said. “We held Olivia out of the race out of caution for some pain in her foot.

“Kendra ran her second race in a row right near 25 minutes. Brooke was under 27 minutes for the first time this season. Corrina’s second race of the year was another strong effort. Laura’s time was between the Williamsburg and Pella meets.”

Notes: Newton’s Carol Sander led the Cardinal JV and her career-best time of 31:02 would have been a top-seven varsity time on Tuesday. " Carol started out strong and set the tone that led to that best time,” Tipton said.