Noe Shines; Bombers Show Grit At Dodger Invite

Ballard Scores 252 Points

October 7, 2022

The women's cross country team competed in the Dodger Invite in Fort Dodge on Thursday evening. The Bombers placed 9th overall but were the highest Class 3A school with the other schools ahead of them in Class 4A.

Paityn Noe won the meet shattering the state record by 14 seconds; winning in a time of 17:09.8. Annika Larson finished 16th overall. She finished in a time of 19:16.9. Ava Vance and Ava Richardson finished 44th and 78th with McKenzie Dee (113th), Brynn Wilson (115th), and Raegan Loewe (137th) rounding out the field for the Bombers.

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

"The girls ran a great race tonight against some very good competition. Of the 24 full teams entered, 17 teams were ranked in their respective classes, of which there were 13 ranked 4A teams. We were able to knock off 5 of those ranked 4A teams and everyone else in the competition.

The highlight of the evening was watching Paityn Noe once again break her own state best record, bringing the time down another 14 seconds to 17:09. She is still improving and we will see if she can lower the record even more over the next 3 meets. I know she has a sub 17 in her mind and after her performance today, I think it is possible. Annika Larson took a spill in the middle portion of her race and finished very well in 16th place with a PR of 19:16. Ava Vance continued on her road back from injury last spring and knocked her time down to 19:53 in placing 44th. That is just shy of her PR by 4 seconds. Ava Richardson ran a great race finishing 78th in a PR time of 20:44. McKenzie Dee stepped up and ran a PR in placing 113th in a time of 21:30. Both of these girls are improving rapidly and we hope to see even more out of them over the next few weeks. Brynn Wilson ran her first race coming off of some time off with a very good 21:21 placing 115th. She looked good and it was nice having her back in the line-up. She ran a very good VO2 max workout heading into the meet, so we think she will also show rapid bounce back over the next few weeks as well. Raegan Loewe closed out the varsity lineup placing 137th in a time of 22:38. She hasn't tapped into her potential yet and we hope that she rises to the occasion in the next 2 meets to show the state we have 7 solid runners that can step up as needed.

I was pleased with the performance tonight. It was good having our typical varsity all out there and racing. We took a step forward having that in place and we are heading in the right direction. We will have to work hard to get that state title back, but I do think that this performance helps raise our confidence. We have not reached our ceiling and we will strive to do that heading into the postseason."

The Bombers are back in action on Tuesday - October 11 when they compete in the Raccoon River Conference Meet in Adel. The meet will feature the middle school, junior varsity, and varsity and start at 4:00 PM.

DODGER INVITE WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES (Top 10)

1. Ankeny Centennial, 118

2. Johnston, 138

3. Ames, 162

4. Waukee, 172

5. Dowling, 182

6. Ankeny, 191

7. West Des Moines Valley, 193

8. Des Moines Roosevelt, 236

9. Ballard, 252

10. Indianola, 266

DODGER INVITE WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES