Urbandale Runners Aim to Return to State

Urbandale Boys Cross Country Head Coach Jon Lindaman greeted his cross country team with two large tubs of ice cream after practice last week. 

He was a man of his word.

"At the Marshalltown meet we improved quite a bit," said senior runner Ryan Miller.  "Coach made us a deal that if we all improved our times from Ames by one minute or more, he'd get us ice cream, and just about everyone did. So he's just holding up to the deal."

Incremental improvements are all eighth-year coach Lindaman really wants from his team. According to him, in the first three meets at Ames, Marshalltown and Valley his team has finished in the middle of the pack, but all is well.

"The most encouraging thing I see as a coach is that every kid has gotten better with every meet," said Lindaman. "And as a coach, that's what you want to see your kids do. So they're working hard and doing what they need to do,"

This years team is young, but Lindaman said his freshman and sophomores have been making valuable contributions and that's encouraging. 

Two runners qualified for the state meet last season, Drew Prescott, who is now running at Creighton, and senior Grant Wierson.

Wierson never ran cross country but played football all through middle middle school. He was the starting quarterback his freshman year. He decided to stop playing football and put on his running shoes after that, and finished 64th at last year's state meet.

"Grant's a really competitive kid," said Lindaman. "He's worked hard and you know he's going to give it everything he's got every time he steps on the course."

Wierson, Miller and the rest of the guys have paid their dues leading up to the season, running every day at 7:30, starting last June.

It's that dedication that has them thinking they can make it back to state for the third time in four years. Last season was the first since 2007 that the team didn't qualify for the state meet.

"As a team, we definitely want to make it back to state," said Wierson. "Last year was the first in the last three years we haven't, so we need to get back on that track, make it back to to state and hopefully then we place."

According to Lindaman, as long as the team improves with each meet, their middle-of-the-pack finishes should lead to goals being accomplished.

"My goal as a coach is to always run our best races that last three meets of the year," said Lindaman. "Some of those first meets there's teams that look phenomenal and that's about as good as they'll get all year long."

The last three meets are the conference, district and state meet, Oct. 13, 20, and 29, respectively.

The J-Hawks will next compete Thursday at the Indianola Invitational at 4:30 p.m. at Pickard Park.