JOHNSTON — Two Prairie City-Monroe cross country runners climbed the medal stand Thursday at the Johnston Invitational.
Junior Kirsten Ives led the Mustang girls to a second-place finish following her seventh-place finish in the small-school division girls’ race, and sophomore Jason Stafford placed 11th overall in the boys’ race.
The PCM girls scored 65 points in second place. The Mustangs defeated Bondurant-Farrar by 10 points and Earlham by 19 points.
Class 3A No. 9 North Polk cruised to the team title with 15 points. The Comets claimed the first five positions and then the final two runners were seventh and eighth.
Bondurant-Farrar, ranked 13th in 3A, won the boys’ title with 33 points. The 1A No. 12 Earlham Cardinals were second with 45 points followed by North Polk (79), South Hardin (108), Pella Christian (135) and PCM (145).
Ives’ seventh-place finish was clocked at 21 minutes, 57.8 seconds. Junior Megan Townley was 16th in 22:50.6, sophomore Klaire Jungling was 17th in 22:59.3 and senior Baylee Smith finished 23rd in 23:24.9.
Junior Morgan Uhlenhopp was the final counting runner in 38th with a time of 25:17.2. Senior Ellie Steenhoek was 40th in 25:21.1 and sophomore Sierra Foster finished 48th in 26:45.4.
Stafford was 11th in the boys’ division with a time of 18:30.8.
Freshman Beau Webb was 19th in 18:49.2, senior Brady North placed 58th in 21:07.6, senior Caleb Peter finished 63rd in 21:17.7 and Cody Courtney was 68th in 21:30.9.
The two non-counting runners were Jacob Cox in 70th and Carson Clark in 71st.
The Mustangs run at 5 p.m. Monday in Pleasantville.