2022 Meet Preview: Prairie Invitational

A Return to Prairie

The last time the Dutch ran at Cedar Rapids Prairie was 2016. After a 5 year hiatus the Dutch are excited to return. The Cedar Rapids Prairie Invitational is a great race with stellar competition and a nice course. There is a nice mix of races provided to allow athletes to compete at a level that they are comfortable with this early in the season. The Prairie Invitational includes Varsity (5k), Junior Varsity (5k), and a 9/10 race (4k.)

Probable Line Up

Girls Varsity: Autumn Blink (11), Abbey Bogaards (12), Sophia Boonstra (11), Tess Paulsen (11), Raegan Snieder (10), Abby Teagarden (11), Jacie Trine (11)

Boys Varsity: Devon Browne (10), Kaiden Browne (10), Chase Lauman (12), Zack Neumann (12), Wyatt Van Dyke (11), Aren Hellbusch (10), Nathan Vander Waal (11)

Girls 9/10 (4K): Cora Ebelsheiser (9), Marissa Ferebee (9), Carlyn Henry (9), Avary Hunsinger (9), Morgan McAninch (9), Lizzie Neumann (9), Lyndon Norton (9), Isabella Smith (9), Addison Van Wyk (9), Evalee Van Zee (9), Rebekah Wittenberg (9), Emerson Wogen (9)

Boys 9/10 (4K): Zach Dobson (9), CanaanDunham (9), Henry Gauley (9), Mason Gaulke (9), Aiden Huston (9), Evan Johnston (9), Daniel Rozenboom (9), Asher Schiebout (9), Noah Schuknecht (9)

Girls JV: Faith Galeazzi (11), Chloe Punt (10), Mara Schiebout (10), Phoebe Schrauben (10), Maddie Schmitz (12), Lydia Vos (11)

Boys JV: Mars Chapel (10), Morgen Clark (12), MacK Copeland (10), Jack Conrad (11), Stephen Gaul (11), Noah Huffaker (10), Jake Huston (11), Kolton Messer (10), Alex Mitchel (11), Elijah Ruckman (12), Jacob Shaffer (12), Jordan Shaffer (12), Isaac Treimer (11)

Loaded Fields at Prairie

The boys race this year features five ranked 4A teams, four ranked 3A teams (including the #1 and #3), and two ranked 2A teams. On the girls side there are four ranked 4A teams, four ranked 4A teams (including #4), and two ranked 2A teams.

This years invitational includes the following teams:

Boys: Assumption Davenport (3A), Cedar Falls (4A #7), Clear Creek-Amana (3A #13), Cedar Rapids Prairie (4A #16), Cedar Rapids Washington (4A), Davenport West (4A), Fort Madison (3A), Iowa City West (4A #8), Linn-Mar (4A #18), Marion (3A #1), Monticello (2A #10), Pella (3A #3), Waukee (4A), Waukee Northwest (4A #10), West Liberty (2A), Western Dubuque (3A #8), Williamsburg (2A #8),

Girls: Assumption Davenport (3A), Cedar Falls (4A #20), Clear Creek-Amana (3A #15), Cedar Rapids Prairie (4A #13), Cedar Rapids Washington (4A), Davenport West (4A), Fort Madison (3A), Linn-Mar (4A #11), Marion (3A #19), Monticello (2A #4), Pella (3A #13), Waukee (4A #15), West Liberty (2A), Western Dubuque (3A #4), Williamsburg (2A #8)

A Great Individual Race

The boys individual race will feature twelve preseason ranked individual boys from 4A, 3A, and 2A. Five of these young men dipped under 17:00 at the state meet last season. Jedidiah Osgood from Marion has dipped under 16 minutes already this season and will be one to watch from the start.

The girls race features eight preseason ranked individual girls from 4A, 3A, and 2A. Five of these girls have broken the 20 minute barrier at last year’s state championships. Kierra Hess of Cedar Rapids Prairie posted a time of 19:03 at the championship race last year and will be running on her home course.

4A Ranked Individuals: (Boys) #13 Seth Cheney – Iowa City West, #24 Garrett Weber – Waukee, #28 Luke Hartman – Cedar Falls, #30 Colin Johnson – Cedar Falls; (Girls) #10 Keirra Hess – Cedar Rapids Prairie, #17 Mallory Wurth – Waukee

3A Ranked Individuals: (Boys) #1 Jedidiah Osgood – Marion, #4 Chase Lauman – Pella, #10 Chris Oberbrockling – Marion, #16 Cooper Cook – Marion, #18 Nathan VanderWaal – Pella, #25 Jordan Fischer – Marion, #29 David Lochner – Assumption; (Girls) #5 Raegan Snieder -Pella, #9 Alyssa Klein – Epworth, Western Dubuque, #13 Haidyn Barker – Clear Creek-Amana, #23 Autumn Blink – Pella.

2A Ranked Individuals (Boys) #8 Sam Rich – Williamsburg; (Girls) #10 Emma Althoff – Monticello, #14 Ava Capron – Monticello.

Fast Freshman

This race will also feature some freshmen that will make an impact throughout their high school careers. Jaden Merrick of Cedar Falls won the 4A 8th grade State Championship in 10:10 leaving everyone behind by almost 1 minute. Jaden has already broke the 17:00 mark in the 5K and will be an impact runner. Canaan Dunham of Pella was the winner of the 8th grade boys 3A championship also breaking the 11:00 minute mark winning in a time of 10:45. On the girls side two Waukee runners Hayden Beyer, and Michelle McConkey finished 2nd and 3rd at the Junior High State Championship 4A race last year.