AMES — The Iowa State University cross country course served as home site for Thursday’s Gilbert Invitational, a meet featuring several ranked teams and individual in both the girls and boys varsity races.
Class 2A No. 5 Panorama won the girls side with 45 points, one better than their effort at the same meet last season. Earlham, rated ninth in 1A, was second at 83, with West Marshall (85) third, Van Meter (111) fourth and Madrid (130) fifth. AC/GC — 13th in 2A — was sixth at 142, with South Hamilton (169), Des Moines Christian (192), Ogden (216) and Pleasantville (221) recording team scores.
Earlham (No. 4, 1A) won the boys side with 45 points, with 2A No. 6 DMC second at 61, top-ranked 1A Madrid third at 62 and 1A No. 14 Ogden fourth at 127. South Hamilton (162), AC/GC (163), Eagle Grove (172), Van Meter (215), Pella Christian (241) and West Marshall (278) completed the top 10. Panorama was 11th at 334, with Pleasanvtille (356) and Ankeny Christian Academy (358) were also in action.
“I thought the girls ran well, especially knowing they had the worst weather,” Panorama head coach Greg Thompson said, noting the temperature was in the 80s under sunny skies. “The boys ran about 75 minutes after the girls and it was considerably cooler and more cloudy. The heat affected a couple of the girls, but four of the seven ran better than last year, with three of those by about 30 seconds.”
AC/GC standout Kate Crawford edged third-ranked Panorama junior Ella Waddle by five seconds for the individual title. Waddle reset her own school record for the course by crossing in 20 minutes, 34 seconds.
Payton Beckman was sixth in 22:49 and Olivia Steffen seventh in 23:05 with Gwen Steffen 10th in 23:31 as four Panthers earned medals. Lydia Lindstrom also scored for the varsity by finishing in 25:32, with Leah Fett (42nd, 27:01) and Abby Cobb (58th, 28:01) also completing the circuit.
“The girls work extremely hard and that hard work was rewarded at this meet,” Thompson said. “There were many good teams and individuals at this meet, yet the girls had four in the top 10.”
A crashing computer fouled the boys results and placings, delaying the release of the information from the meet.
Emry Colby led Panorama with a clocking of 21:22. Kevin Cogil (22:01), Avery Norman (22:43), Brayden Hoffman (23:09) and Conor McCarthy (23:15) rounded out the varsity scoring.
Landon Goodenberger (23:22) and Declan McCarthy (24:02) also ran for the varsity, with Alec Mills (24:08) and Paul Hansen (26:22) in action as well. Thompson praised the effort of Hansen, who dropped over three minutes off his 2018 time at the same meet.
“The boys’ inexperience really affected their performance, as only four of the boys had run on this course before tonight,” Thompson said. “I still believe in the potential of the boys team. If they take the training seriously and complete the workouts as designed they could be a pretty good team.”
Panorama will resume competition Thursday when they compete in the West Central Valley Invitational. The meet with be held at the 5 x 80 golf course in Menlo.
