Dowling Girls Closing In On The Preseason Hype Of Johnston

Lindsey Andrews


The Johnston (Iowa) girls cross country team made headlines last year after fielding a team of mostly underclassmen to win the state title with a record-low score of just 26 points.

Many expected the Dragons, who came in ranked No. 13 in MileSplit's preseason Flo50 girls poll, to come back this fall after losing only one of their top seven and be even stronger, but after a spring and summer of injuries the Johnston team is not looking quite as strong as expected.

Though they had some solid performances at the Spartan Invitational, including freshman Bella Heikes closing hard close behind No. 5 runner and senior Lauren Urban, the team still appears to be only a fraction of what it came to be last year.

And other teams have stepped up as a result.

One that has risen to the occasion is Dowling Catholic. After finishing sixth at state last year with 199 points, the team has made some huge fitness jumps under new head coach Loren Stortz. Kate Timboe and Elzerie Vandyke both came out this weekend and were just seconds off of their PRs from last year.

When we look at the two teams matched up with current season PRs, it appears that Johnston would take the win, though Dowling has a strong pack of five with a split of just 45 seconds in between, versus Johnston's 1:27 split.


PLACEATHLETEGRADETEAMTIMEPOINTS
1Jessica Mckee2018Johnston High School19:03.00 1
2Brooklyn Mckee2020Johnston High School19:34.00 2
3Kate Timboe2019Dowling Catholic High School19:41.00 3
4Elzerie Vandyke2018Dowling Catholic High School19:50.00 4
5Kelsey Schweizer2019Dowling Catholic High School19:57.40 5
6Clara Toot2020Johnston High School20:02.00 6
7Lindsey Batkiewicz2019Johnston High School20:21.00 7
8Lauren Urban2019Johnston High School20:30.00 8
9Katelyn Reichart2020Dowling Catholic High School20:30.30 9
10Molly Flood2018Dowling Catholic High School20:32.80 10
11Bella Heikes2021Johnston High School20:33.00 11
12Caroline Fink2019Dowling Catholic High School20:45.00 12
13Taryn Swaim2018Johnston High School20:54.00 13
14Kendall Nead2020Johnston High School20:56.00 --
15Janey Meilander2019Dowling Catholic High School21:01.00 14

Team Scores
PLACETEAMPOINTSSCORERSSPLITAVERAGE
1Johnston High School241+2+6+7+8 (11+13)1:27.0019:54.00
2Dowling Catholic High School313+4+5+9+10 (12+14)51.8020:06.30

Compared to last year's season bests for all of the athletes, it appears that Johnston has lost some strong athletes while Dowling has certainly gained traction. If Johnston can rally up Josie Hovey and Paige Horner again this season, that could certainly make for a very different match up, but as it stands the Maroons appear to be closing in on the Dragons.

Here is how the two teams matched up last year based on season bests:

PLACEATHLETEGRADETEAMTIMEPOINTS
1Jessica Mckee2018Johnston High School17:45.62 1
2Brooklyn Mckee2020Johnston High School17:54.96 2
3Paige Horner2020Johnston High School18:31.00 3
4Josie Hovey2019Johnston High School18:43.31 4
5Clara Toot2020Johnston High School19:00.52 5
6Janey Meilander2019Dowling Catholic High School19:02.96 6
7Kelsey Schweizer2019Dowling Catholic High School19:06.46 7
8Molly Flood2018Dowling Catholic High School19:32.00 8
9Kate Timboe2019Dowling Catholic High School19:35.10 9
10Taryn Swaim2018Johnston High School19:36.10 10
11Elzerie Vandyke2018Dowling Catholic High School19:37.15 11
12Caroline Fink2019Dowling Catholic High School19:41.02 12
13Katelyn Reichart2020Dowling Catholic High School19:51.50 13
14Megan Szaley2020Dowling Catholic High School20:06.10 --
15Lauren Urban2019Johnston High School20:12.40 14


Team Scores

PLACETEAMPOINTSSCORERSSPLITAVERAGE
1Johnston High School151+2+3+4+5 (10+14)1:14.9018:23.08
2Dowling Catholic High School416+7+8+9+11 (12+13)34.1919:22.73

This season has certainly started out in a very different place than where they ended last year, and it is anyone's guess what will happen in the next seven and a half weeks, but one thing is for sure: the Johnston team has a lot of ground to cover if they want to defend their state title as comfortably as they earned it last year.

Check out this weeks' full team rankings to see how these two teams stack up against others across the state of Iowa!