Harriers have high expectations this fall

FORT MADISON – Fort Madison cross country coach Brian Mendez is stoked about this season’s cross-country squads.
Mendez is the head coach, with the assistance of Jordan Meierotto, for both the boys' and girls' squads and is as loaded as he’s been on both squads in years.
He starts with a girls' team that failed to make the state meet in 2024 by one point, ultimately .05 seconds. But they bring back three-time state qualifier Avery Rump in her senior year. Her best finish in Fort Dodge was 4th her sophomore year. They also will have Jordyn Marshall, Addison Rump, Mara Smith, McKayla Schinstock, Ellie Hellman, and Ellie Huebner all returning from last season’s squad that graduated no seniors.
The boys lose three strong runners, including two-time state qualifier Jacob Shottenkirk.  They also lost Calvin Johnson and Peyton Lambert from last season’s team. They return 2024 state qualifier Riley Tripp, a healthy Nolan Guzman, who’s missed a little of both his sophomore and junior seasons, Mason McLey, Jacob Walker, and a group of freshman who Mendez said could determine the success of the boys' team.
But he said expectations are high for both groups.
“I’ve let both teams know that I have high expectations and I let them know that when we pull up to an event, we’re gonna get a race,” Mendez said at Saturday’s media day.
"The girls have even higher expectations. We got snakebit last year and now we have to run like we got snakebit.”
Mendez said the Lady Hounds are arguably one of the best teams in the state with 10 seniors and they need to remember what happened at the Pella districts last year as motivation for this year.
“I got outcoached there, and we got our butts caught at that district meet and that’s how it goes. This year we’ll go to meets and we’re gonna win and there’ll be other coaches that say, ‘That’s all right we’ll get them at districts'. It’s a mental thing that we have to get past,” he said.

The Lady Hounds will also have Smith full-time this year. Smith typically shared the fall season between volleyball and cross-country. Mendez said that development and a healthy squad should make Fort Madison very tough.
“We have Mara full-time this year. That’s certainly going to make a difference. She’s certainly had more of a summer this year than she had last season, which was almost none,” he said.
“We’re older and stronger. With a healthy McKayla Schinstock, the only way to beat us is you’re real good. You beat our girls, you are really good.”
Marshall was 18th at the district meet at Pella, Addison Rump was 19th and Smith missed 20th place by .05 seconds to Washington’s Kendall Henrichsen in a gutsy run to the line.
Tripp, Guzman, and McLey will anchor a seasoned boys' squad that surprised the district field in 2022 and qualified as a team as freshmen with Shottenkirk. Mendez said Jacob Walker will also figure into the scoring.
“Jacob Walker was on the way up last year and he’s growing up. And we have some talented freshmen that I’m not going to speak too highly of until they start performing, but they're going to do great things,” he said.
“The boys have a tougher track because we’re not as deep yet and we don’t know what they can do. But two of our top seven will be freshmen. So, we have some learning to do.”
But the bar has been set early this year and Mendez said it will be an exciting season.
“This isn’t a ‘Well we see what we can do' type of season. We’re expecting them to win or be in the top three to five.”