PANORA — Outstanding individual efforts carried the Class 2A fifth-ranked Panorama girls cross country team to victory in Thursday’s WCAC meet.
Victory in the boys WCAC meet was claimed by 1A top-ranked Madrid, with 1A top-rated Sean McDermott winning the boys crown by over 30 seconds.
Panorama head coach Greg Thompson praised the effort of Panther assistant Brandon Waddle for his efforts in helping create an alternate course on the Par 3 Golf Course. Recent rains created wet conditions — particularly in the wooded portions of the regular course, an area seeing less sunlight — and forced a re-drawing of the route away from the first three holes on the golf course.
As a result, the two-mile junior high course was 300 meters short than normal, with the varsity route roughly 400 meters shy of the usual five kilometers.
The Panorama girls claimed their sixth consecutive conference championship with 40 points, with a gritty effort from Earlham placing a close second at 44 while AC/GC was third at 94. Nine teams competed in the girls varsity/junior varsity race, with 104 individuals taking part.
Sophomore Ella Waddle, ranked fifth in 2A, defeated 2016 state champion and 1A No. 5 Kate Crawford (junior, AC/GC) for top honors. Waddle crossed in 18 minutes, 4.03 seconds, a full minute ahead of Crawford, who finished in 19:05.75. Panorama freshman Payton Beckman flashed her promise with a third-place 20:27.05.
Sophomore Olivia Steffen was sixth in 21:15.75 to also earn All-WCAC First Team honors, with senior Brooklyn Behrends Second Team after placing 13th in 21:31.64. Also scoring, and just missing conference honors, was Chloe Webster, who was 17th in 21:46.84.
Gwen Steffen (19th, 21:57.34) and Jaelyn Waddle (24th, 22:09.23) also ran for the varsity, but did not have their places tabulated. Leah Fett, Bryn Steffen, Abby Cobb, Lydia Lindstrom and Molly Simmons ran for the Panther JV.
“We went pretty light in practice over the last week because of the weather conditions and to heal some nagging injuries and muscle tightness,” Thompson said. “We still aren’t running at full health, but I felt the kids gave the best effort they could. They embraced the alternate, muddy course and didn’t let it affect their performances.”
Madrid’s 38 points claimed the boys competition. DMC was second at 76 and Earlham third at 95 while Panorama was 10th in the 12-team field with 257 points. A total of 141 harriers ran in the event.
McDermott crossed in 15:57.72 to win the league title. AC/GC’s Noah Nelsen, ranked ninth in 1A, was second in 16:28.57, with 19th-ranked Louden Foster of West Central Valley third in 16:33.82.
The first three Panther boys to finish crossed 44-46-48, with Kevin Cogil (18:15.89), Emry Colby (18:18.13), and Noah Kirtley (18:23.43) providing the points. Avery Norman was 59th in 19:26.38 and Levi Richey 62nd in 19:29.38.
Kade Kemble (65th, 19:57.17) and Alec Mills (71st, 20:19.05) completed the varsity septet, though their scores were not used for the team total.
“Levi has been sick all wick, but he tried to race tonight,” Thompson noted. “That illness seemed to zap his energy level, as he became fatigued pretty quickly.”
Joydan Wehmeyer and Paul Hansen were the lone JV runners competing for the Panther boys.
Earlham was first (33) and Panorama third (89) in the junior high girls race, with Clare Kelley of Madrid winning the 58-runner event in 11:45.85.
Mia Waddle (6th, 13:08.86), Kaitlin Kent (16th, 14:37.87), Kylie Doran (17th, 14:38.91), Tyme Boettcher (24th, 14:59.67) and Natalie Donovan (26th, 14:59.67) scored for the Panthers, with Zoey Hambleton (39th, 17:33.24) and Avery Behrenfus (41st, 17:48.75) rounding out the seven. Ella Knapp (18:37.05) was also on the course for the hosts. Doran was the lone eighth-grade runner, all others are in grade seven.
Ogden scored 38 points to win the boys race, with Madrid’s Ethan Loutzenheiser winning the 68-harrier competition in 11:26.28.
Panorama had only two runners — both from grade seven — and thus did not record a team score. Competing for the Panthers were Maddox Hammerstrom (13:03.46) and Weston Ploeger (14:12.72).
