PANORA — Sprinters will often say they prefer warmer weather, while it is rare for the same sentiment to be shared by distance specialists.
The large field competing at the Panorama Invitational Thursday was faced with the former climatic conditions, as temperatures in the mid-80’s and gusty winds approaching 15 miles per hour challenged all the harriers running on the Panorama Par 3 Golf Course track.
The W-G girls finished eighth in a 16-team field, with the Hawk boys 12th among 20 teams. Panorama scored 53 points for first place in the girls race, with Earlham second at 90 and AC/GC third at 99 while W-G was eighth with a score of 240.
Peyton Pogge of Tri-Center was the first girl finisher, crossing in 19 minutes, 43 seconds. Panorama’s Ella Waddle was second (20:07), with AC/GC’s Kate Crawford (20:25) third.
Bella Milosevich led W-G by placing 36th in 25:40, with Natalie Helbling and Ava Petersen 45-46 in 26:03 and 26:05, respectively. Posey Robinson was 52nd in 26:33 and Chloe David 61st in 27:11 to cap the Hawk scorers. Kate Grell (64th, 27:17) and Kaitlyn Smith (78th, 29:02) completed the varsity seven.
Top-ranked Madrid, led by top rated Sean McDermott, won the boys crown with 31 points. Nodaway Valley was second at 86 and AC/GC third at 149, with W-G’s 313 finishing 12th.
McDermott sped to the overall win in 16:59, with Nodaway Valley’s Joshua Baudler second in 17:23 and AC/GC’s Noah Nelsen third in 17:25.
Dylan Steele and Alex Bice placed 44th and 47th, in 20:22 and 20:28, to lead the W-G boys. Caleb Jones was 58th in 20:44, with a 21:45 for Xavier Ibarra placing 77th while a clocking of 22:08 placed Noah Gleason 87th. Although not scoring, Nick Buch’s 24:20 (117th) was also recorded as a varsity effort.
The Hawk harriers will be in action twice next week, with visits to ADM and Roland-Story slated for Monday and then for Thursday. Both meets will begin with junior varsity action at 4:30 p.m.
