SAYLOR — In one of the closing meets of the 2013 cross country season, Prairie City-Monroe’s stellar freshman Rachel Stafford may have proven she is ready for the state meet. Stafford won the girls’ 4K race, finishing in 17 minutes. 9.70 and beating second-place finishing Sybbie Sears of North Polk by more than 11 seconds.
Colfax-Mingo’s Iva Moore had a strong showing as well. The Tigerhawak junior finished in 12th place with a run of 18:23.53. C-M’s girls were shorthanded without the Hostetter sisters, but the team still showed some spirit with Kenzie Cogley placing 49th in 20:39.65 and Donita Fatland not far behind in 51st at 20:40.44. Breawna Schroder was 73rd at 23:30.41.
“The girls were short handed tonight with both Kennedi and Dakota Hostetter absent for a family event and a few others were sick. We only had four runners competing but we still had some positive things happen,” C-M coach Zach Tomas said. “Iva Moore led the way with a 12th place medal. Kenzie Cogley and Donita Fatland ran very competitive races as well.”
North Polk won the boys side, edging out Perry 61 to 63. PCM was seventh with 219, and C-M was eight at 233 points.
Jimmy Abell led the way for C-M’s boys team. He ran a 20:32.62 5K, placing 45th. Chris Stuva and Ahn Hyeongyeop ran side by side. Stuva was 77th at 22:26.92, and Hyeongyeop was right behind him in 22:27.10. Ryan McLain was 91st at 23:18.22. Will Dunsbergen placed 100th in 24:04.32. KC Huffman was 105th in 24:25.01, and Adam Teed ran a 27:44.28 to place 124th.
“The highlight of the night for the boys were personal best times by Ahn and KC Huffman,” Tomas said. “The boys team has work very hard all year and have improved so much from the beginning of the season. We have a lot of underclassmen that have run varsity all season and this experience is huge for the program moving forward.”
PCM had only two other girls run at the Sayde-hosted meet. Kayla Schakel was 36th in 19:42.87, and Amber Beener placed 75th in 23:32.97.
Matt Chizek finished 28th for the Mustangs, running a time of 19:42.24. Chris Ellens was 52nd in 21:05.93. Mark Bruxvoort placed 84th with a time of 22:50.25. Trenton Howard ran a 23:01.60 to place 87th. Connor Brey was 101st with a time of 24:06.74.