PCM’s Ellens scores top-10 finish at Johnston Invite

JOHNSTON — The cross country course at Camp Dodge is flat and the distance was 300 meters shorter than a 5K so Prairie City-Monroe coach Eric Karr expected his boys’ and girls’ teams to run faster than they did a week ago at Iowa State University.

From that standpoint, the Mustangs had a successful night after many varsity runners improved their times from one meet to the next.

Chris Ellens claimed the eighth-place medal, helping the boys to a sixth-place finish in the team standings.

On the girls’ side, junior Jayci Vos earned a medal for the second straight meet as her 12th-place finish helped push the Mustang girls up to fifth as a team.

“You should expect to run better times and we did,” Karr said in regards to the shorter and flatter course. “We were significantly better today and that shows me that the effort is there.”

The top 15 individual finishers in both divisions earned medals. Vos’ 12th-place tally was clocked at 22 minutes, 3 seconds. Bondurant-Farrar’s Jamie Larsen won the race in 19:59, while Lydia Rose of South Hardin was the runner-up in 20:12.

Class 2A No. 13 North Polk, one of PCM’s Heart of Iowa Conference rivals, won the team title with 30 points. The Comets’ top six runners finished 4-5-6-7-8-9. South Hardin claimed the runner-up trophy with 78 points and Pella Christian scored 105 in third.

PCM, which competed without two of its top three runners in junior Rachel Stafford and sophomore Baylee Smith, were one point back of Earlham with 115 points. Bondurant-Farrar (126), Clarke (156) and Saydel (164) rounded out the eight-team field.

Coming in after Vos for PCM was senior Morgan Novak in 29th, freshman Megan Townley in 30th and senior Kiara Kappelmann in 31st. That Mustang trio was separated by only 10 seconds, while freshman Morgan Uhlenhopp was the fifth scorer in 34th.

Freshman Sara Dudley (49th) and Mallery Downey (64th) also competed for the Mustangs.
Vos is still trying to work through how to pace herself during a distance race but felt much more comfortable in her second-ever varsity race.

“I felt more relaxed today than the first one. It felt better,” Vos said. “I am really bad for pace, especially for distance. I am still trying to adjust and figure that out. We have been working on it so it’s getting there.”

Ellens earned his first top-10 finish of the season as he finished the boys’ Class A race in 17:46.

“It was a nice course. It was a perfect day. The sun is out and it was a little warm but that just helped loosen up the muscles,” Ellens said. “We built up a lot of stamina this summer. I got out to a fast start, and that helped loosen things up. I think all the guys ran well today.”

Karr also was pleased with the rest of the boys squad.

Sophomore Blake Lee was the next Mustang finisher. He ended up 18th in his first race of the year with a time of 18:33, while senior Trent Howard was 43rd in 19:40 and sophomore Noah Henkenius ended up 48th in 19:51.

The final scorer for PCM was sophomore Brady North, who was one spot in front of junior Mark Bruxvoort. North crossed in 58th and Bruxvoort was 59th. Sophomore Caleb Peter was the final varsity runner in 62nd. North, Bruxvoort and Peter were separated by only four seconds.

“If we have a flat course and a shorter course and we are not running PRs then we have issues,” Karr said about both of his teams. “Their mentality and demeanor was different. They were happier with the way they ran, too, so that’s a step in the right direction.”

David Parker of Saydel won the Class A race in 16:50. North Polk’s Will McCormick was the runner-up in 16:52 and Nick Swift of Bondurant-Farrar finished in third.

Bondurant-Farrar claimed three spots in the top 10 and grabbed the team title with 51 points. The Bluejays were 16 points ahead of 2A No. 11 North Polk and Earlham was third with 112.

Pella Christian (119) and Saydel (140) rounded out the top five and PCM (156), South Hardin (158), Clarke (161) and Ankeny Christian (180) rounded out the nine-team field.

Karr liked what he saw from his No. 1 runner. And he thinks the sky’s the limit for Ellens.

“He’s just a fluid runner. He works so hard, ran a great race and should be proud of it,” Karr said. “He was to win right now, but he needs to remember that we need to be in shape by Oct. 22 not necessarily right now. That’s hard for a guy like him to think that way though.”