PANORA, IA — Thursday witnessed the WCAC cross country crowd congregate in Panora for the annual conference meet.
Des Moines Christian won the boys varsity race with 30 points, with Van Meter winning the girls side with 45 points. Individual champions were Aaron Fynaardt of DMC in 15 minutes, 57.3 seconds and Clare Kelly of Van Meter in 19:36.35.
Two runners competed for each varsity squad for the home team.
Zach Hayden crossed in 21:39.02 and Grffyn Burchfield in 23:08.79 for the Panther boys, with May Fett 19th overall in 21:43.85 for the girls while Avery Bahrenfuss finished in 25:43.12.
“I was very excited about the Panorama performance,” head coach Greg Thompson said. “I feel it was the best race of the season. All eight runners gave tremendous effort. Zach and Grffyn ran their all-time bests and Avery ran her season-best time by 51 seconds.”
No Panther boys appeared in the two-mile middle school race, but Panorama sent the four harriers needed to generate an official team score onto the course in the girls race.
Van Meter scored 30 points to win the race, with Panorama fourth in a nine-team field with 68 points.
Kylie Rochholz was third overall in 13:45.73, with Nellie Rivas 16th in 15:38.19. Ruth Fett and Jamie Fronapfel were 24-25 in 16:11.89 and 16:12.86, respectively.
“Kylie ran 1:42 faster than she did last year at conference,” Thompson noted, “and in varsity Mary Fett was 1:11 faster than her projected time.”
“The WCAC is a tremendously strong conference,” Thompson said. “We currently have four ranked boys teams and six ranked girls teams. I anticipate our conference winning four state trophies if those teams run like they are right now.”
Panorama will compete Thursday in a Class 1A State Qualifying Meet at AC/GC.
