Mustangs place sixth, 10th at Knoxville Invite

KNOXVILLE — Facing some of state’s best competition, the Prairie City-Monroe girls and boys cross country teams placed sixth and 10th at the Knoxville Invitational Tuesday night at Pine Knolls Golf Course.

The girls were led by the usual cast of Rachel Peter and Rachel Stafford. Peter, a senior, placed 21st out of 85 runners with a time of 17 minutes, 34 seconds. Stafford was close behind, crossing the finish line in 27th place in 17:57.3.

The girls team placed sixth by scoring 184 points. Pella, ranked fourth in Class 3A, won the team title with only 42 points.

The top five individual finishers are all ranked in their respective classes. Newton’s Grace Coen (ranked 21st in 4A) placed first, followed by Oskaloosa’s Sienna DeJong (4th in 3A) and Pella’s trio of Kelcey Blommers (7th in 3A), Tessa Roorda (15th) and Ciara Buchheit (13th).

PCM’s boys team finished 10th out of 11 teams by scoring 292 points. Chris Ellens, who placed 39th out of 83 runners, led the Mustangs with a time of 20:24.5.

Mustang freshman Blaise Winegardner did not finish the race. He’s led the team in all four races he’s completed.

Pella, ranked first in 3A, won the boys team title with only 26 points. The boys race also featured several ranked runners, including winner Spencer DeJong of Oskaloosa (4th).

PCM’s next meet is Monday at Norwalk.

Knoxville Invitational
Girls race

Prairie City-Monroe: 21. Peter, 17:34.2; 27. Stafford, 17:57.3; 29. Baylee Smith, 18:06.9; 55. Kiara Kapplemann, 19:54.9; 61. Morgan Novak, 20:26.6; 63. Mallery Bell, 20:47.7.

Boys race

Prairie City-Monroe: 39. Ellens, 20:24.5; 64. Trent Howard, 22:13.8; 65. Brady North, 22:18.6; 72. Rory VanGorp, 23:05; 78. Chase Keucker, 23:54.2; 79. Caleb Peter, 24:10.6