Top-ranked Panthers face rough competition

WEST BRANCH ? The Class 1A No. 1 Pekin Panthers girls? cross-country team finished third at the Bud Williams Invitational on Thursday with 86 points,b ehind Class 4A No. 1 Urbandale (22) and class 4A No. 9 Iowa City (37).

Gwynne Wright was Pekin?s top finisher at fifth place with a time of 19:09. Shea Dahlstrom, clocked at 20:11.5 good for 14th place, was the other Panther in the top 15.

Also running for Pekin were: Taylor Lock, 16th, 20:26.9; Zoey Wright, 23rd, 21:14; Hunter Lock, 28th, 21:28.7; Hollie Loper, 31st, 22:00.7; Payton Lock, 42nd, 22:11.2; Kelly Myers, 43rd, 22:17.6; Sloan Reighard, 44th, 22:29.7 and Taylor Winn, 50th, 23:20.7.

On the boys? side, Pekin finished in fourth place with 114 points, behind Urbandale (30), Iowa City (37) and Cedar Rapids-Jefferson (100). Ryan Millikin was the top Panther in 13th at 17:04.5.

Other Pekin runners included: Malcolm Myers, 16th, 17:11.9; Austin Fariss, 23rd, 17:49.1; Sam Roth, 40th, 18:22.6; Cameron Little, 44th, 18:37.4; Nate Kielkopf, 46th, 18:45.1 and Isaiah Wittrock, 59th, 20:02.7.

The Panthers, along with Cardinal, Maharishi School and Van Buren, will run at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday in the SEISC Conference Meet at Louisa-Muscatine.

Pekin sweeps

home meet at

Waterworks Park

Wright and Millikin finished first in their respective races on Saturday at Waterworks Park in Fairfield to lead both the girls and boys? teams to seven-point scores and first-place finishes.

The races were divided into heats for each specific grade. Here are the Panther finishes sorted by heat:

Seniors, girls: Gwynne Wright, first, 19:14; Taylor Lock, second, 20:46; Payton Lock, fourth, 22:01 and Sloan Reighard, fifth, 22:16.

Seniors, boys: Fariss, third, 17:28 and Chris Harvey, eighth, 20:08.

Juniors, girls: Dahlstrom, second, 20:14 and Mackenzie Martin, third, 23:32.

Juniors, boys: Millikin, first, 17:05; Myers, second, 17:11; Kielkopf, seventh, 18:46 and Little, 10th, 19:23.

Sophomores, girls: Jasmine Harvey, fourth, 23:48; Jordyn Earnest, fifth, 23:59; Hailey Beam, ninth, 26:12; Mackenzie Manley, 12th, 26:33 and Kodi Dailey, 13th, 26:52.

Sophomores, boys: Roth, first, 18:40 and Wittrock, fourth, 19:13.

Freshmen, girls: Zoey Wright, first, 21:50; Hunter Lock, second, 22:13; Ayren Essary, fifth, 22:48; Myers, sixth, 22:48; Loper, seventh, 24:00; Halee Haile, 10th, 25:52; Katie Jones, 11th, 27:00 and Shannon Seager, 12th, 27:34.

Freshmen, boys: Jacob Weber, fifth, 21:25.