PANORA — Panorama made the most of being the host site for a Class 1A State Qualifying meet Oct. 20, with both the Panther boys and girls running to spots in Saturday’s State Meet at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge.
“This was a fun night!” Panorama head coach Greg Thompson said. “The kids ran very well. I challenged each of them to run with heart and this was the first meet this year where I felt that each runner ran as hard as they could; they ran with heart.”
The Panther girls will be running at the state meet for the fifth consecutive season and ninth time in 11 years under Thompson. The team has appeared in 12 state meets, with their highest finish third — they were ninth last year.
The Panorama boys will make their third trip to the big meet and second under Thompson. Their best finish is 13th, and they last appeared in the 2010 state meet alongside the Panther girls.
The format assured team spots to the top three squads and top 15 individuals in both the boys and girls races.
Panorama won the girls meet with 90 points, with Griswold second at 111 and AC/GC third at 125 in an 18-team field.
East Mills’ Janette Schraft finished first in 20 minutes, 18.15 seconds to earn a spot at state, but because her school did not have the five runners required for a team score, she was not awarded a point.
AC/GC’s Kate Crawford (20:27.52) and Emma Swanson (20:53.56) were officially 1-2 (so far as points were concerned) with IKM-Manning’s Payton Sporrer third in 20:58.03.
“The goal was to have five girls in the top 30,” Thompson said, “we came close with number five (Brooklyn Behrends) at 33rd place.”
Devyn Kemble was sixth for Panorama in a state-qualifying meet school record 21:08.47; there was no previous course standard as this was the first time the Panora Par-3 path was 5k in length for the girls.
Brianna Hoffman (12th at state last year) was seventh in 21:08.69, with Lydia Lindstrom (23rd, 22:57.23), Chloe Webster (25th, 23:04.93) and Behrends (crossing 33rd, but scored as 29th, in 23:12.47) creating Panorama’s 90-point total. Emily Smith (24:08.48) and Lydia Knapp (24:24.72) were also in action for the Panthers.
AC/GC claimed the boys title with 37 points, with Panorama second at 76 while Earlham slipped past Tri-Center, 125-133, for the third automatic berth in the 18-team race.
“The goal for the boys was to have in the top 25, and our fifth placed 25th (scored as 23rd),” Thompson said. “Tyler Van Houten had a great race.”
Treynor’s Jerry Jorgenson, WCV’s Ryaln Heffernan and Griswold’s David Thompson were 1-2-3 in 17:16.13, 17:27.55 and 17:31.96, respectively.
Josh Carstens was eighth in 17:59.11, a new school record for state qualifying on the home course. The previous mark of 18:04 was set by Hunter Simmons in 2013.
Mitch Wagler (13th, 18:14.26), Danny Nordquist (14th, 18:18.77), George Appleseth (18th, 18:33.49) and Van Houten (18:54.12) also scored for the hosts. Also running for the Panther boys were Sam Webster (19:32.66) and Kaleb Randal (19:49.96).
The Class 1A girls state final will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday, with the boys race at 2:30 p.m.
