FORT DODGE — School and personal records fell in heaps Saturday as the Panorama girls — dominant all-season — raced to second place at the Class 1A State Cross County Meet at Kennedy Park.
Moments after the girls made names for themselves, senior Josh Carstens, the lone Panther boy running, used a tremendous late kick to stride to a 21st place showing.
Hudson scored 104 points to win the girls team title, with Panorama close behind to finish as runner-up at 115. Kee was third with 133 points.
Freshman Ella Waddle sparkled for Panorama as she has all season, racing to sixth place overall in 19 minutes, 32.7 seconds, a lifetime best effort.
Sophomore Emily Staal (18:36.5) of Springville was the state champion, with junior Emma Lucas (18:59.3) of Bedford second while sophomore Kate Crawford of AC/GC, the defending champion, was third in 19:15.5 while freshman Peyton Pogge of Tri-Center crossed fourth in 19:25.
Those four were running as individuals, and thus did not create a placing score. Senior Felicity Taylor of South Winneshiek was fifth in 19:25.2 and scored one point, as the first finisher from a qualified team, with Waddle counting as two points by finishing sixth.
Panorama senior Devyn Kemble was 11/31 (place/overall) in 20:45.3, with freshman sisters Gwen and Olivia Steffen 24/52 and 27/55 in 21:16.9 and 21:21.5, respectively, while senior Brianna Hoffman finished 51/87 in 22:03.1 to account for the Panther scoring. Also running were sophomore Chloe Webster, 82/121 in 23:15.6, and junior Brooklyn Behrends, 86/125 in 23:32.9. A total of 143 harriers ran in the 1A race.
Olivia Steffen joined Waddle (and Carstens) in running lifetime best clockings, while Kemble and Webster ran their best times on the state meet course.
Emma Swanson, AC/GC senior, was 23rd overall in 20:26.5, with Charger junior Lauryn Embleton 41st in 21:06.1. Other WCAC competitors included Madrid sophomore Lauren Horn, who was 50th in 21:15, and Ogden senior Camryn Buxton, who finished 64th in 21:32.4.
“Our girls ran their best team race of the season,” Panorama head coach Greg Thompson said. “They came in ready to do something special and did, missing a state championship by a mere 11 points.”
“Ella set a new school record for the course by breaking Brianna’s 20:25 from the 2015 season,” he added. “Ella’s sixth-place individual finish is also the highest finisher that I have coached at Panorama for the girls team. The team score of 115 and the second-place team finish are also school records, topping the third-place 146 from 2009.”
Carstens finished his prep cross country career with a flair, moving from 31st place with 1,000 meters to go up to 21st in a lifetime best clocking of 17:05.5. He was 42nd at the state meet last season.
“Josh ran a tremendous race,” Thompson said. “This was easily the best race of his career. I am excited for him this spring as his two-mile time during the 5k race was just 10 seconds off his best two-mile in track.”
Senior Riley Bauer of North Union was the boys titleist in 16:14.2, with Sean McDermott of Madrid 2/1 in 16:20.6 while Woodward Academy’s Rashawn Marshall was 23/11 in 17:09.5.
Nodaway Valley, ranked first all season, was a comfortable team champion with 56 points, with Bellevue second at 82. In a testament to the depth and strength of the WCAC, Madrid was third at 136, Woodward Academy fourth at 166, AC/GC eighth at 194, Ogden 10th at 238 and Earlham 14th at 328. A total of 15 teams and 149 runners competed in the boys race.
“This was a very fun season for me as a coach, not just because of the numerous school records, individual and team placings, but because of the character and the personalities of all the team members,” Thompson reflected. “They did everything we asked them to do without complaint.”
As always, graduations will impact a high school team, and the Panthers will miss the services of an outstanding senior class next season.
“The program will lose nine valuable seniors: Brianna, Devyn, Maddie Knapp, Josh, Danny Nordquist, Brady Howard, Erik Olsen, Kaleb Randel and Sam Webster, along with our student manager, Katy Bassett,” Thompson said. “Brianna and Devyn ran at the state meet all four years, with Devyn a four-time individual qualifier and Brianna a three-time individual qualifier while Maddie ran on two state qualifying teams.”
“Josh is a two-time state qualifier and Danny qualified once, while Kaleb and Sam ran on the 2016 boys state qualifying team,” he added. “All these young adults have led the cross country teams through their great examples, both during practice, at races, and life in general.”
The Panther boys ran at state in 2010 and 2016, while running through Kennedy Park is becoming something of a tradition for the girls squad, which was appearing for the 10th time in the last 12 seasons. The Panorama senior girls were members of teams that placed eighth in 2014, ninth in 2015, 10th in 2016 and, now, second.
“Looking forward, I have extremely high expectations for the girls next year even though they are losing three seniors,” Thompson said. “They return three of the top four runners and will be gaining several very talented eighth grade girls that will be fighting for varsity positions, including Angel Poldberg, Payton Beckman and Laci Rishel.
“The boys are losing five seniors, but do return three of the top five runners,” he added. “They will gain Kevin Cogil, who set many new junior high record this past season along with three other eighth graders that will develop given time.”
Just what the other teams in Class 1A wanted to hear … Panorama cross country is going nowhere.
