PCM harriers end season short of state meet

TIPTON — Facing a tough field of ranked teams and ranked runners was too much for Prairie City-Monroe’s cross country teams to overcome on Thursday night at the Class 2A state qualifying meet at Tipton.

Facing four teams ranked in the top 12 and 10 runners ranked in the top 26, the PCM girls finished eighth as a team. The Mustang boys went up against three top-10 teams and finished ninth.

The top three teams and top 15 individuals advance to next weekend’s 2018 State Cross Country Meet in Fort Dodge.

PCM’s top finisher came on the girls’ side. Senior Megan Townley led her team with a 26th-place finish. Her time was clocked at 21 minutes, 25.8 seconds.

Junior Klaire Jungling was 34th overall with a time of 22:00.1 and sophomore Margo Chipps ended up 50th in 22:48.3.

The next three PCM runners were 57th, 58th and 59th, respectively. Senior Kirstin Ives finished in 23:20.9, sophomore Emma George crossed the finish line in 23:22.8 and senior Hannah Bouwkamp hit the finish line in 23:25.2.

The final runner was junior Hannah McCarthy, who placed 74th in 25:39.8.

PCM’s girls scored 220 points in eighth. Top-ranked Mid-Prairie won the meet with 53 points, and second-ranked Williamsburg was next with 61. The other state qualifier was No. 12 Danville-New London with 85 points. No. 11 Springville-Central City was fourth with 95.

Winning the girls’ 5K race was second-ranked Emily Staal of Springville-Central City in 17:34.9. Top-ranked and defending state champion Marie Hostetler of Mid-Prairie was the runner-up in 17:40.5.

Leading the PCM boys was sophomore Beau Webb, who was 37th in 18:34.5. Webb was 3 seconds faster than junior teammate Jason Stafford, who placed 39th in 18:37.3.

Junior Ayrton Breckenridge, freshman Kyle Sanders and sophomore Garin Padget were the other three scoring runners. Breckenridge was 58th in 19:41.1, Sanders finished 66th in 20:19.9 and Padget was 67th in 20:22.2.

Sophomore Cody Courtney was 69th in 20:36.4 and junior Cooper Vandelune placed 73rd with a time of 20:47.1.

The Mustang boys scored 256 points in ninth place. No. 1 Tipton cruised to the team title with 37 points. Tenth-ranked Davis County and ninth-ranked Williamsburg also clinched state berths with 78 and 85 points, respectively.

Sixth-ranked Caleb Shumaker of Tipton won the boys’ 5K race in 16:10.4. Davis County’s Carson Shively, who is ranked 26th, was second in 16:21.3.