MENLO — The Panorama harriers were in action Thursday on the 5×80 Golf Course for the West Central Valley Invite.
Class 3A No. 14 North Polk captured the girls title with 27 points, with Panorama, rated third in 2A, placing second with 52 points while AC/GC was third at 89.
AC/GC claimed the top boys spot with 77 points, with Ogden second at 97 and IKM-Manning third at 114 with Panorama 11th of 12 teams at 237.
Panorama sophomore Ella Waddle won the girls race in 19 minutes, 14 seconds, the fastest 5K time ever recorded for a Panther girl, regardless of course. AC/GC’s Kate Crawford was second in 19:42.11 with North Polk runners crossing 3-4-5-6 while Panorama freshman Payton Beckman was seventh in 21:01.01. The girls race featured 83 harriers.
Olivia Steffen (13th, 21:58.74), Gwen Steffen (15th, 22:03.05) and Brooklyn Behrend (16th, 22:16.7) also scored for Panorama. Freshman Leah Fett was 22nd in 22:53.25 and senior Jaelyn Waddle was 25th in 23:19.05, but their scores were not used for the team total.
“I am very pleased with the overall performance of (both) teams,” Panorama head coach Greg Thompson said. “I knew the girls were going to be challenged by North Polk. Eagle Grove was also a team to keep an eye on as they are on the watch list in 2A. I thought our girls battled well and tried to compete.”
“The boys are improving and ran well when compared to themselves and previous races,” he added. “The boys will get a boost next week when they get Emry Colby back.”
Missouri Valley’s Jordan Hustak was the overall boys winner in 16:31.4. Noah Nelsen of AC/GC was second in 16:34.85 while Louden Foster of West Central Valley was third in 17:13.17. A total of 132 runners competed in the boys competition.
Levi Richey was 19th in 18:37.75 to pace the Panther boys. Kevin Cogil was 32nd in 18:57.76 and Noah Kirtley 46th in 19:25.21 while Avery Norman finished 65th in 20:24.99 and Drew Hafner 75th in 21:46.86. Alec Mills (76th, 22:01.7) and Jordan Wehmeyer (78th, 23:03.51) also ran for Panorama, as did Raul Hansen (26:17.88).
Panorama returns to action Thursday with a trip north to Jewell for the South Hamilton Invitational.
