The two-month cross country season can be a delicate balance.

Teams want to be racing their fastest times at the end of the calendar, for conference, districts and state.

Teams also want to be challenged. And they want to win a few, if possible. Mount Vernon-Lisbon has had a big serving of elite competition to start the season. First, a huge field of 4A programs in Ames. Then last week, the Mustangs finished second (girls) and fifth (boys) at the Cedar Rapids Invitational at Seminole Valley Park.

“There is a fine line of being hungry at end of the season, but also being prepared for it,” MVL Coach Kory Swart said. “It is touchy. Lot of things to factor in.”

The No. 4 (3A) MVL boys finished behind ranked 4A teams No. 10 Prairie, No. 4 Ankeny Centennial, No. 15 Cedar Rapids Kennedy plus Bettendorf on Thursday, Sept. 19.

Moustafa Tiea of Iowa City West won the race in 15 minutes, 38 seconds. MVL’s Grady Olberding was just a few seconds behind, placing second in 15:42.2.

“Tiea is great; he’s really good,” Swart said. “Grady ran a great race that day to keep up with him.”Both the Mustangs teams are dealing with a little gap issue between the top two runners and the next three athletes to cross the finish line.

“You don’t want wide spreads (between first and fifth runners),” Swart said. “But Grady is a spread wrecker. But that’s a good problem to have.”

After Olberding, Dawson Scheil was eighth, Seamus O’Connor was 30th, Chasen Caskey 39th, and Zane Van Regenmorter was 52nd.

On the girls side, Kiersten Swart finished fifth in 19:23.6, followed by 10th-place Evelyn Moeller. Rose Pisarik was 25th, Sam Schoff was 38th, and Cora Smith was 41st.

“Kiersten and Evelyn really had great races to lead the way for us,” Swart said. “Now we work on 3 to 5, and get them a little bit closer.”

As a team, No. 2 (3A) MVL girls only trailed No. 3 (4A) Ankeny Centennial in the team standings, and beat No. 15 (4A) Cedar Rapids Prairie and No. 18 (4A) Davenport Central.

And while the team titles have been out of reach against the big schools, Swart sees a ton of growth a few weeks into the season. “We are definitely getting pushed,” Swart said. “But winning meets is fun, too. Hopefully we can do that aswe move down the line.”

MVL has a rare week without a competition before a Monday, Sept. 23, race at Solon.

“We’ll get in a couple good workouts and also have a little fun,” Swart said. “We’ll have scavenger runs and also an ice cream run.”

The Mustangs follow the Solon Invitational with three meets across eight days to start October.

CEDAR RAPIDS INVITATIONAL

Boys team scores – 1. Cedar Rapids Prairie 68; 2. Bettendorf 87; 3. Ankeny Centennial 91; 4. Cedar
Raqids Kennedy 95; 5. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 130; 6. Iowa City West 159; 7. Davenport Central
163; 8. Waterloo West 234; 8. Waterloo West 234; 9. Davenport North 278; 10. North Scott 280; 11.
Dubuque Wahlert 306; 12. Cedar Rapids Xavier 307; 13. Muscatine 311; 14. Marion 356; 15. Cedar
Rapids Jefferson 390; 16. Cedar Rapids Washington 414; 17. Clinton 444.

Medalist – 1. Moustafa Tiea (ICW) 15:38.0.

MVL – 2. Grady Olberding 15:42.2; 8. Dawson Scheil 16:01.2; 30. Seamus O’Connor 17:04.8; 39.
Chasen Caskey 17:16.3; 52. Zane Van Regenmorter 17:46.5; 60. Anthony Armstrong 18:00.5; 67.
Cayden Scheil 18:17.8.

Girls team scores – 1. Ankeny Centennial 35; 2. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 119; 3. Cedar Rapids Prairie
132; 4. Davenport Central 137; 5. Bettendorf 146; 6. Marion 158; 7. Dubuque Wahlert 220; 8. Iowa City
West 226; 9. Center Point-Urbana 234; 10. Muscatine 266; 11. Clinton 269; 12. Cedar Rapids Kennedy
280; 13. Cedar Rapids Xavier 299; 14. North Scott 325; 15. Cedar Rapids Washington 360; 16. Cedar
Rapids Jefferson 459; 17. Davenport North 490.

Medalist – 1. Anika Mohrhauser (AC) 18:42.9.

MVL – 5. Kiersten Swart 19:23.6; 10. Evelyn Moeller 19:52.9; 25. Rose Pisarik 20:55.7; 38. Sam Schoff
21:35.0; 41. Cora Smith 21:41.8; 55. Claire Jensen 22:10.7; 57. Josie Bothell 22:18.9.