FORT MADISON - Fort Madison cross country coach Brian Mendez said after Thursday's Southeast Conference meet that sophomore Avery Rump has one speed. Fast.
That proved itself factual as Rump took 1st place in the girls' varsity run at Rodeo Park.
Rump raced to a 19.29.7, a full minute ahead of Washington's Iris Dahl, and a time that the Bloodhound said was her fastest ever at Rodeo Park.
"Avery's just a bullet. She has one speed and that's fast and if you want a run with her - c'mon," Mendez said.
Paetyn Wiegand took fourth overall with a 20:43.4, and was followed by Addison Rump who had one of her best runs of the year taking sixth place overall with a mark of 21:21.6 Rump ran half the race with one shoe after losing it on the north run. Avery lost a shoe last year at the state track meet in the 3200.
The other scoring runners for Fort Madison were Allison Lamb (15th) 22:54.7 and Hadley Wolfe (18th) 23:06.1. Fort Madison took 2nd overall with 44 points, just five behind the Demons.
Rump said she wanted to push for the conference to help her teammates.
"It was conference and I wanted to push myself to do well here and help my team do well. I saw a lot of the Washington girls come in packed up before our scoring runners, so I knew it was gonna be tough," she said.
The runners now have a week off to prepare for the 3A state qualifier in Pella on Wednesday. Fort Madison will have their work cut out there with the Pella girls ranked as the No. 1 team in the state in 3A. Harlan's Lindsey Sonderman is the top ranked girl in 3A, but Avery Rump is right behind ranked No. 2 in the state.
“Whatever happens, happens. All I'm hoping for is to make it to state. I'm just going to run there and do my best and try to help our team. They have the top team in the state in Pella and the top runner from Harlan so I'm excited to run there. It'll be like a little pre-state,” she said.
In the boys’ run Nolan Guzman led Fort Madison with a 6th-place finish with a kick inside the flags to shoot ahead of Jacob Shottenkirk and Mason McLey. Guzman finished at 17:32.8 with Shottenkirk just .4 seconds behind at 17.33.2. McLey was 9th overall with a 17:33.5. Mt. Pleasant’s Locken Henderson somehow managed to finish in between McLey and Shottenkirk.
Fort Madison finished second with a 39, 12 points behind front-runner Washington.
Guzman said the boys geared up a bit for the home conference run, but the important race comes next week.
“The race was okay. We tried to work together to move up and that didn't seem to help as much this time, but I think I made all-conference and that's a good way to end the day,” Guzman said.
“We wanted this, but districts is more important so it's all about staying healthy now.”
McLey said he likes running in a pack as the Bloodhounds always seem to have a faster pace working together in the second half of runs.
“It was much better than the first time we ran here this year. We tried the same plan as last time at districts and that was to pack together. It really helped me this time.”
He said the Bloodhounds tried to take a more moderate pace out of the gate because they had been starting a bit too fast so far this year.
“We've been getting out a little too fast at the other meets, so we tried to slow it down a little bit this time. But I think we may have slowed it down too much in the first mile,” McLey said.
Mendez agreed.
“We were just saying that. They may have come out a little slow,” Mendez said. “Our boys have been running well all year, just like last year. I've tried to stay out of their way a bit because they've got it figured out. They'll have another week to recalibrate and try to do it again.”
“We’re not done yet. We went to district's last year and shocked the world, and we're going again with the same mentality.”
Other scoring runners for the Hounds were Riley Trip (13th) 18:03.4 and freshman Hunter Wiegand (16th) at 18.41.4. That was the top time among freshmen in the run.
Peyton Lambert and Calvin Johnson finished 17th and 18th. Castille Johnson, the only senior on the team, ran a 19:59.9. Jonah Santiago finished 47th, Jake Haessig was 52nd.
Other runners for the Lady Hounds were Ellie Huebner (29th), Alexa Walz (46th), Charley Huebner (47th), Jordyn Burch (51st), and Emma Kern (55th).
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