AMES – Gilbert and North Polk. North Polk and Gilbert. And everyone else was nothing more than window dressing.

Two girls’ cross country heavyweights went to battle and left the remainder of the field in the dust at Monday’s Heart of Iowa Conference meet on the Iowa State course. No. 2-ranked (Class 3A) Gilbert and No. 10 (2A) North Polk occupied 10 of the top 11 places and decked third-place and No. 12 (2A) CMB by a dominant margin.

Individual gold, silver and bronze for the Tigers propelled them to the conference crown with 25 points. North Polk owned four of the top-10 slots and tallied 36 points. Only CMB’s Heather Jessen broke up the party at the front; her seventh-place finish helped the Raiders produce 81 points.

South Hamilton finished at the back of the nine-team pack with 240 points.

Teammates and training partners Carly Rahn and Maggie Pollard were joined by Emily Branson to form Gilbert’s triumvirate out front. Rahn pushed the pace over the final half-mile of the five-kilometer race to win the individual title in 20:46.70. Pollard was next in 20:56.31, followed by Branson in 21:09.09.

North Polk’s pack of four – Emily Patterson (21:17.84), Amelia Lesher (21:25.95), Rachel Zimmerman (21:49.92) and Sophie Blanchard (21:50.13) – placed fourth through seventh, respectively.

Gilbert had three more runners – Kenzie Miller (22:09.26), Justine Rosburg (22:14.09) and Annie Pollard (22:17.10) – in ninth, 10th and 11th.

With only five girls on the course, South Hamilton was unable to make a push and finished 54 points behind eighth-place finisher Saydel (186).

Freshman Hayley Bell pulled away from her teammates early and ran an even pace to place 29th in 23:56.21. It was nearly 2 1/2 minutes later when classmate Emily Willadson (26:15.14) joined her around the finish line. Willadson placed 44th.

Annie Johnson (27:31.26) registered a 52nd-place result. Raquel Holt (29:42.49) was 56th and Katie Ralston (36:22.25) took 59th.

South Hamilton will have more than a week to get ready for next Thursday’s Class 1A State Qualifying Meet, which will be hosted by Ankeny Centennial High School in Ankeny.