PLEASANTVILLE — Area cross country runners were all over the top of the individual and team standings Monday evening at the Pleasantville Invitational.
The Prairie City-Monroe girls won its first meet of the season, but Colfax-Mingo and Lynnville-Sully were second and third, respectively. In the boys race, PCM and Lynnville-Sully each scored 88 points in a tie for second place.
Individually, PCM’s Chris Ellens was the boys winner with a time of 17 minutes, 6 seconds, while Colfax-Mingo’s Dakota Hostetter finished second in the girls’ race with a time of 21:46.
The Mustang girls won the meet easily, scoring 32 points. Leading the way for PCM was freshman Klaire Jungling, who crossed the line in third with a time of 22:54.
Sophomores Kirstin Ives (23:02) and Paytan Schut (23:08) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, while senior Rachel Stafford (24:05) was ninth and junior Ellie Steenhoek (24:07) came in 11th. PCM’s two non-counting runners were sophomore Megan Townley in 14th and senior Jayci Vos in 16th.
Colfax-Mingo (79) finished 11 points in front of Lynnville-Sully (90) in the nine-team field.
After Hostetter was freshman Abbey McConeghey in seventh. She finished in 23:38. Sophomore Delaney Underwood (25:03) was 20th, sophomore Ilia Hostetter (26:01) ended up 28th, junior Morgan McKinney-McGill (26:48) finished 36th and Chloe Forck (27:24) crossed in 45th. Senior Mollie Greve (28:11) was 50th, while sophomore Payton Rhone and freshman Jodine Woods finished 50th and 52nd, respectively.
Lynnville-Sully freshman Abby Gruver came across the line in sixth overall with a time of 23:27. She was followed by junior Christine Nikkel (24:27) and sophomore Emily Van Gorp (24:33) in 12th and 13th, respectively. Junior Hailey Scandridge (26:22) finished 33rd, while junior Lydia Akergren (26:54) was 38th. Freshman Brittany Hansen and Haley Breeden were 40th and 41st, respectively.
Dakota Hostetter came into the week ranked 18th in Class 1A. Her time of 21:46 was 41 seconds behind unranked Elise Emmick of Southeast Warren, who won the race in 21:05.
Ellens continues to get better for the PCM boys. His time of 17:06 was a career-best performance. He came into the meet ranked 21st in 2A but was 41 seconds faster than I-35’s Dominic Cresta, who is ranked 27th in 2A.
The only other top-10 finishers from the area were Colfax-Mingo’s Cameron Warner and PCM’s Jason Stafford. Warner finished fourth overall in 18:35, while Jason Stafford crossed in 19:16.
I-35 won the team title with 55 points. PCM and Lynnville-Sully both scored 88 points, but the Mustangs finished second because their sixth runner — junior Caleb Peter — finished one position and one second ahead of L-S’ Joseph Anderson.
The other three scoring runners for the Mustangs were Jacob Cox (20:46), Mark Bruxvoort (20:57) and Brady North (20:57.5) in 25th, 26th and 27th. Peter finished 38th, while Owen Hugen ended up 46th.
Dunsbergen finished 10th in 19:25 for Lynnville-Sully. After him for the Hawks were Jared Craver (20:08) and Luke Jones (20:10) in 17th and 18th, respectively. Cody Gibbs (20:44), and John Trettin were 24th and 35th, respectively, while Anderson finished 39th and Ty Breeden crossed in 44th.
After Warner for the Tigerhawk boys were Cyden Fitch (21:22) in 31st, Nic Duffy (21:31) in 34th, KC Huffman (22:41) in 50th, Jordan Lescaleet (24:41) in 70th and Jake Frier (25:32) in 76th.
All three area teams are back in action at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lynnville-Sully Invitational. The Mustangs, Hawks and Tigerhawks will be joined by Collins-Maxwell/Baxter.