Parkinson headlines area harriers at Pleasantville Invitational

PLEASANTVILLE — Not having a full lineup will likely affect the ranking of the Class 1A No. 6 Lynnville-Sully girls cross country team when the new rankings come out next week.

Because the Hawks had only four runners at the Pleasantville Invitational on Monday, they also did not have the chance to compete against three other ranked teams in the field, but none of that bothers head coach Darin Arkema.

Three of the Hawks’ four runners placed in the top 14, too, and Colfax-Mingo finished sixth in the eight-team field on a hot day at Pleasantville Country Club.

The races were pushed back to help counter the unusually hot temperatures.

“Historically, our kids have liked this course,” Arkema said. “It’s not perfectly flat like Grinnell, but the ups and downs are gradual and not terribly long so there can be some fast racing.”

Colfax-Mingo’s lineup featured six runners. That allowed the Tigerhawks to score 145 points in sixth.

Class 2A No. 20 Grand View Christian won the meet championship with 56 points. Class 2A No. 17 Interstate 35 was two points back in second with 58, and the rest of the top five included Pleasantville (90), 1A No. 4 Martensdale-St. Marys (95) and Wayne Community (107).

Colfax-Mingo (145) edged Montezuma (147) for sixth and Chariton (239) completed the field.

The Hawks were without a pair of runners in Mandeesa Vos and Isabelle Vos. Mandeesa is battling an injury, while Isabelle had a volleyball conflict.

While Martensdale-St. Marys had its two highest ranked runners in the lineup, the Blue Devils also were missing a few varsity runners, according to Arkema.

“We went over to the meet knowing we were going to be without Isabelle (Vos) and Mandeesa (Vos), which meant with four we would not compile a team score. That will more than likely have an impact on where the girls are ranked next week, but as I told all of them before the race, I don’t care about that and the focus should be for all of them to go have the best races they can.”

Emma Parkinson led the area runners in fourth. She finished the girls’ 5K race in 20 minutes, 51.78 seconds.

The only runners in front of her were 1A No. 3 Karson Oberender of Martensdale-St. Marys, 1A No. 7 Maclaine German of Martensdale-St. Marys and 2A No. 28 Lydia Parlee of Grand View Christian.

Oberender won the race in 18:55.6, German was second in 19:16.63 and Parlee finished third in 20:31.71.

Breah Lowry (20:51.78) was next for the Hawks in 12th, Peyton Sharp (22:06.14) took 14th and Katelyn Nikkel (23:41.73) finished 27th.

“At the end of the night I wanted them to look at the results with the belief that the way they ran and with those other two girls, we could have placed very high or won the meet and have the other schools wondering how good we can be if we have everyone,” Arkema said. “If Mandeesa (Vos) and Isabelle (Vos) run and finish where they have the last two meets, the girls do win.

“The girls nailed it, and I’m especially proud of (Sharp) and the way she raced after getting sick during warm-ups. She was still able to battle through for a strong race.”

Ashlynn Hosbond led the Tigerhawks in 15th. She was clocked in 22:09.55.

Lilyan Hadsall (25:25.67) was 42nd, Ivy Anderson (25:31.71) placed 43rd, Jessica Gibson (25:44.75) finished 44th and Sahara Buenrostro (26:29.38) took 53rd as the other scoring runners.

Mallory Sipma (29:29.99) came in 68th as the team’s non-scoring runner.