STORY CITY — Results from Thursday’s Roland-Story Invitational have now been released, with the Panorama girls finishing second while the boys team did not record a team score.
Madrid, Ogden, and Bondurant-Farrar were the top three boys team finishers, with point totals of 25, 89, and 99, respectively. R-S, ranked eighth in 2A, won the girls side with 32 points. Fifth-rated Panorama — running without either of the Steffen twins — was second at 80, with B-G third at 85.
Ella Waddle won the girls race in 20 minutes, 20 seconds. Payton Beckman was fourth in 22:06 and Mia Waddle 10th in 22:51, with Leah Fett and Abby Cobb placing 32-33, in 24:58 and 25:01, respectively, to round out the five scorers. Avery Bahrenfuss (57th, 26:51) and Deana Solorzano (67th, 27:33) also ran for the varsity.
“I felt the girls gave their best effort this season as far as their mental approach and toughness is concerned,” Panorama head coach Greg Thompson said. “They worked very hard mentally to keep pushing themselves even through their legs were feeling heavy. Each of those seven girls rose to the challenge of “next man up” since they were missing two of the normal varsity scoring runners.”
“I was especially proud of Payton and Mia,” Thompson added. “Payton was in a tight race for fourth for most of the race and ended up pulling away near the finish line even though she was fatigued from last week’s race and the practices this week, but really showed her mental strength as she kept pushing. Mia improved her life-time best by 46 seconds and pushed herself harder than she has before.”
Avery Norman (62nd, 21:38), Ryan McCarthy (65th, 21:49), and Paul Hansen (79th, 23:32) competed for the Panther boys varsity.
“Ryan ran very well, dropping his best time by 1 minute, 37 seconds,” Thompson said. “His is starting to see his own potential and what he could become as a runner is he has a good mindset. Paul is having a great senior season; he has now set his lifetime-best two meets in a row.”
