Mustang girls finish second at HOIAC meet

MONROE — With its No. 4 ranking in Class 2A, the PCM girls cross country team will be hunted by almost everyone it faces in the final part of the season.

But with the top-ranked team coming to the Mustangs’ home course for the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference meet on Monday, PCM had a chance to be the hunters.

That’s exactly how senior Abi Teeter likes it.

“I want to be the underdog. Everyone loves a good underdog story,” Teeter said. “We wanted to come in today and be the hunter. Last week Pella Christian hunted us. We were the hunters last year when we weren’t ranked as high.”

With the roster the Mustangs will have for the state qualifying meet next week, they fell a little short of 2A No. 1 West Marshall but finished second by only eight points at Gateway Recreation Golf Course.

PCM’s first five runners hit the finish line before West Marshall’s five, but the Trojans were just a little better at the top of the lineup.

Top-ranked West Marshall scored 37 points as HOIAC champions. Fourth-ranked PCM scored 45 points in second, and the next closest team was 2A No. 18 Grand View Christian (82) in third and 2A No. 19 Roland-Story (109) was fourth.

The rest of the eight-team field included Nevada (114), Greene County (160) and South Hamilton (178). Perry and Saydel had incomplete rosters.

“To have two of the top four ranked teams competing for a conference title is great,” PCM head cross country coach Eric Osterhaus said. “You never know what will happen at state so we’ll compete the best we can every day.

“We’ll use our good race strategies, use the training we know works and race the way we race, and I think we’ll be just fine come districts and state.”

PCM’s top three finishers were in the first 10 spots on Monday. Teeter, who is ranked 17th in 2A, was the girls’ 5K race runner-up with a time of 20 minutes, 54.34 seconds. That was about 40 seconds faster than the first time she ran at Gateway earlier this season.

Junior Ali Hilsabeck was seventh in 21:27.56 and junior Lila Milani finished ninth in 21:42.9.

The top 12 finishers in each varsity race earned all-conference recognition at the end of the meet.

“Our team was prepared. We knew (West Marshall) was a threat, and we went in knowing we had to run our best to catch any Trojan in front of us,” Milani said. “We had a good plan. We ran our race for the first mile and then about halfway in we decided to attack for a bit. It didn’t work out exactly how we wanted, but I’m proud of my team. We tried our hardest.”

Sophomore Annie Ford (22:55.75) and junior Bailey Wheeler (22:57.85) were the other scoring runners in 16th and 17th, respectively.

Freshman Jodi Jungling (23:23.51) and seniors Paiten Rumbaugh (23:35.62), Raegan Vannoy (24:32.96) and Alexis Fagg (25:17.33) were non-scoring runners in 20th, 23rd, 32nd and 39th, respectively.

“It feels like a good accomplishment,” Ford said. “We couldn’t catch (West Marshall) but just being that close to them right now is really awesome.”

Rumbaugh has been consistently in the team’s top five this season but is still working her way back from an illness from last week.

The Mustangs also won’t get sophomore Darbey DeRaad back this season due to an injury. She was a top-three runner for PCM last year, and her absence could limit the Mustangs’ ceiling.

“We are probably the team to beat with (DeRaad),” Osterhaus said. “But I think we’re still a top-three team. We need our No. 4 runner, whoever that is, to come up. (Ford), (Wheeler) and (Jungling) all ran really well today though.”

Class 2A No. 9 Addie Thompson of West Marshall won the girls’ race in 20:34.62. The Trojans grabbed the conference title after placing three in the top six and four in the top 12.

Teeter said a big part of her improved time from the first time around was a slower first mile.

“I got out in a 5:50 mile the last time I ran here, and I can’t do that,” Teeter said. “I know I can’t do that so opening up in a 6:15 today is exactly where I need to be. I need to be patient. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

“I think we did a good job today, but we can still get better. I love this team. And we have one more guaranteed race to show who we are.”

If someone would have told Hilsabeck that her team would have came within eight points of the No. 1 team in the class at any point this season, she probably would not have believed them.

“Being only eight points back is eye opening,” Hilsabeck said. “We need to run more competitively next time and be ready to beat them and be ready to hurt.”

It’s the mental side of things that can help PCM close the gap on teams like West Marshall at state.

It’s what could help the Mustangs when they race against 2A No. 3 Pella Christian at the state qualifying meet on Oct. 23.

Milani wants her team to focus more during the race when everyone starts to hurt.

“We’re focused before, but then we lose that focus during the race because we start to hurt mentally,” Milani said. “We need to strive for what we want and get rid of the mental barriers because it hurts.

“My mindset was pretty bad at the beginning of the season. I was almost not in the mood to run, but then you start to realize you don’t have much time left to do this. I have a year left basically. I don’t want to take that time for granted.”

Notes: PCM won the HOIAC title in 2024 but finished second in 2023, third in 2022, fifth in 2021 and second again in 2020.

PCM goes to Central College for state qualifying meet

The Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union and Iowa High School Athletic Association released the assignments for next week’s state qualifying meets on Wednesday.

The Mustangs were forced to go more than two hours away last year but will stay much closer to home this time around.

They will compete at a meet hosted by Pella Christian at Central College, and the other teams in attendance will be the No. 3 Eagles, 2A No. 13 Albia, No. 18 Grand View Christian, Cardinal, Centerville, Chariton, Davis County, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont, Interstate 35, Red Oak, Shenandoah, Underwood and West Central Valley.

The top three teams and top 15 individuals advance to the 2A state cross country meet on Oct. 31.

“Rankings are hit and miss. It’s a jumbled mess,” Osterhaus said. “I don’t want to be No. 1 going into the state meet. Because if you don’t win it, it’s a disappointing season by coming in second. I want good expectations. They know what they can do, they know what their realistic outlook is and they just have to believe in themselves.”

The top 15 finishers at the state meet earn all-state honors and a spot on the deck at the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge.

Teeter is currently ranked two spots off the top 15. She’s currently one of five girls in the rankings who will race at Central College next week.

“Rankings can bring confidence, but you can’t let not being ranked in the top 15 get to you because it doesn’t matter,” Teeter said. “Rankings are for the audience. That stuff is not for us.”

The last time PCM and Pella Christian squared off against each other, the Eagles edged the Mustangs by three points in Chariton on Oct. 7.

Hilsabeck was ran down at the tail end of the race by all-state sprinter Bailey Vos. She won’t be the last person to not beat Vos in a foot race, but she did learn from that experience.

“I had more in the tank then and could have made it harder for her,” Hilsabeck said. “So today I saw the girl in front of me and tried to chase her down instead of being the one who was being chased.”