AMES — The Prairie City-Monroe girls cross country team started its season on a strong note Thursday.
The Mustangs claimed three medalists and won their first team championship of the season after an impressive performance in the small-school division of the Gilbert Invitational.
Junior Kirstin Ives finished fifth, junior Paytan Schut was eighth and senior Baylee Smith crossed the finish line in 15th as the Mustangs won the meet with 77 points.
West Marshall, which featured the overall winner in Avril Sinning and fourth-place finisher Grace Girard, was the runner-up with 86 points.
Seventh-ranked Roland-Story was third with 92, Madrid finished fourth with 96 and Earlham rounded out the top five with 109 points.
In the boys’ race, PCM sophomore Jason Stafford was 19th overall and freshman Beau Webb placed 22nd. The Mustangs were eighth in the 13-team field with 234 points.
Sinning won the girls’ race in 21 minutes, 35 seconds. She was followed by Ogden’s Hannah Becker (22:24) and Madrid Rylan Santi (23:03). Girard’s fourth-place time was clocked at 23:05.
Ives came in fifth with a time of 23:28. Schut was clocked at 23:41 and Smith placed 15th in 24:21.
Junior Megan Townley was the fourth finisher for PCM. She was 20th overall in 24:42. Sophomore Klaire Jungling finished 29th in 25:41.
The final two varsity finishers for PCM were sophomore Sayde White and junior Morgan Uhlenhopp. White finished 41st in 26:51 and Uhlenhopp was 49th in 27:38.
The girls’ field included 10 teams. South Hamilton was sixth with 140 points, while the rest of the field included Ogden (155), Van Meter (178), Pleasantville (208) and Colo-NESCO (252).
The boys’ race winner was Madrid’s Sean McDermott. The unranked Tigers won the team title with 55 points, and McDermott was clocked at 17:43.
Class 2A No. 9 South Hamilton was second with 67 points and seventh-ranked Roland-Story was third with 75 points.
The Mustangs were led by Stafford, who finished 19th in 19:49. Webb was 22nd in 19:57.
Senior Caleb Peter was the next Mustang to cross as he finished 82nd in 22:38. Senior Brady North was 84th in 22:44 followed by junior Carson Clark in 86th with a time of 22:55.
The two non-counting varsity runners were Cody Courtney and Jacob Cox. Courtney finished 92nd in 23:02 and Cox was 99th in 23:29.
South Hamilton’s runner-up finish included a 2-3-4 finish from Quinton Grove, Logan Peters and Josiah Brown.