MARSHALLTOWN — The conditions were unlike anything Ottumwa boys cross country coach Jeff Smith had seen before.

That didn’t stop the Bulldog girls and boys from coming up with an encouraging start to their seasons Thursday at Marshalltown’s Early Bird meet. The Ottumwa girls, in their first meet under new head coach Angela Berry, competed well on the way to a third-place finish with 66 points.

The Bulldog boys, meanwhile, got top five individual runs from Cody McConnell and Charlie Altfillisch. Smith’s squad finished fifth overall in the team standings with 118 points on a day where even sweat didn’t last long in the heat.

“It was really dry. It was so unusual,” Smith said. “Once you perspired, it dried immediately. Throats were dry and it made it tough to swallow. It was a unique challenge for everyone.”

The conditions did little to slow down Waterloo West, who opened their season with a clean sweep of the team and individual titles. The Waterloo West boys, led by Anthony Ohl’s winning run, won by 60 over Webster City with 23 points while the West High girls edged the hosting Bobcats by a dozen with 42 points highlighted by Sammy Stroul’s first-place finish.

The Bulldog girls didn’t let the heat get in the way of staying somewhat close together on the course. All 10 Bulldog varsity runners finished inside of the top 50 with the top five scoring top-25 finishes.

“We had seven girls running stride for stride through the opening mile,” Berry said. “That’s how we’ve been practicing and the girls really did a great job putting that into play in the race.”

Caroline Owens and Daylin Latham each scored top-10 finishes to lead the Bulldog girls. Owens took seventh in a time of 17:31 while Latham came home in ninth at 17:49 as Beery saw very encouraging signs from all her runners in the opening meet of the season.

“The girls responded well despite the hot conditions. Whenever I asked them to pick it up during the race, they picked it up,” Berry said. “Several girls ran better times then they did to open last season. It’s going to be really exciting to see how we improve from this opening meet of the year.”

McConnell, meanwhile, showed little signs of the calf muscle injury that sidelined him last spring during track season. The Bulldog senior led the race after over two miles and led the Ottumwa boys with a third-place finish in a time of 17:24 just 18 seconds ahead of his teammate, Altfillisch, who came home in fifth place.

Ottumwa’s lower team finish came due to a gap between their top two finishers and a pair of newcomers. Freshman Collin McConnell came home in 40th in a time of 20:52 while Shane Riley was the Bulldogs’ fourth finisher, crossing the finish line in 44th at 20:56.

“We need to get those other runners up there running a little closer to those top two,” Smith said. “Those three and four runners are running for the first times. If we can get those guys improving on their times, it will give up more top scorers.”

“It was a good first meet. You want to keep improving from here and be peaking when the districts roll around.”

The Ottumwa JV boys finished second to Waterloo West with 79 points and were led by  Seth White’s 10th-place run of 21:32. The Bulldog JV girls took fifth with 117 points highlighted by Sydney Cloyd’s fifth-place finish in 20:38.

Both Ottumwa cross-country teams return to action on their home course next Thursday to compete in the Pekin-hosted Wildwood run.

Marshalltown Early Bird Meet

At Marshalltown

8-23-12

BOYS

Team scoring — 1. Waterloo West 23, 2. Webster City 83, 3. Marshalltown 93, 4. Dike-New Hartford 95, 5. Ottumwa 118, 6. South Tama 135, 7. Grundy Center 207, 8. Belle Plaine 208, 9. Waterloo East 262.

Top Ten — 1. Anthony Ohl (Waterloo West 17:00, 2. Alex Hottle (WW) 17:07, 3. Cody McConnell (Ottumwa) 17:24, 4. Tanner Smith (WW) 17:30, 5. Charlie Altfillisch (O) 17:42, 6. John Crew (Dike-New Hartford) 17:44, 7. Steven Bardon (WW) 17:50, 8. Zach Welos (WW) 18:09, 9. Mitch Black (WW) 18:13, 10. Robert Tyynismaa (South Tama) 18:20.

Ottumwa Runners — 3. Cod. McConnell 17:24, 5. Altfillisch 17:42, 40. Collin McConnell 20:52, 44. Shane Riley 20:56, 56. Nick Sedore 21:56, 60. Isacc Ramos 22:28, 69. Jianwa Bennett 23:51.

JV Team scoring — 1. Waterloo West 17, 2. Ottumwa 79, 3. Marshalltown 79, 4. Dike-New Hartford 103, 5. South Tama 112, 6. Webster City 159.

Ottumwa JV Runners — 10. Seth White 21:32, 13. Sebastian Silva 21:39, 14. Curtis Ford 21:41, 21. Billy Barnes 22:34, 23. Riley Wynn 22:43, 25. Nick Sheehy 23:08, 33. Grant Gullion 23:59, 47. Wyatt Blegen 26:30, 60. Paul Cartwright 36:11.

GIRLS

Team scoring — 1. Waterloo West 42, 2. Marshalltown 54, 3. Ottumwa 66, 4. Dike-New Hartford 79, 5. Webster City 136, 6. Grundy Center 157, 7. Waterloo East 213.

Top Ten — 1. Sammy Stroul (Waterloo West) 16:15, 2. Rachel Blagg (Marshalltown) 16:24, 3. Wynn Tan (M) 16:53, 4. Kadi Wright (Dike-New Hartford) 16:54, 5. Lauren Sharp (DNH) 17:05, 6. Breanna Rodebush (WW) 17:25, 7. Caroline Owens (Ottumwa) 17:31, 8. Ferida Nuhanovic (WW) 17:34, 9. Daylin Latham (O) 17:49, 10. Michaela Huey (M) 17:57.

Ottumwa Runners — 7. Owens 17:31, 9. Latham 17:49, 11. Sydney Strunk 18:00, 15. Katy Fish 18:30, 24. Charlotte Flanders 19:39, 26. Sarah Keith 19:40, 36. Ashlyn Thompson 19:57, 39. Madison Zeseger 20:14, 42. Kate McGinity 20:40, 44. Georgia Garrett 20:43.

JV Team scoring — 1. Marshalltown 40, 2. Waterloo West 44, 3. Dike-New Hartford 88, 4. Webster City 89, 5. Ottumwa 117, 6. South Tama 157.

Ottumwa JV Runners — 5. Sydney Cloyd 20:38, 7. Kelsey Howard 21:01, 36. Sam Saunders 24:04, 46. Abby Walker 25:35, 54. Daisy Cuautle 27:50.