Pekin girls’ team, McWhirter heading to state

The Pekin girls’ cross country team will be continuing their tradition by competing in their 19th state championship meet in a row this Friday, October 28.

The sixth-ranked Panther girls’ team won the regional team championship last Thursday with a score of 42. Second-place Madrid scored 71, while Collins-Maxwell took third with 95. Central Decatur Leon was fourth with 96, Lynnville-Sully finished fifth with 100, Wayne Corydon was sixth with 139, Colfax-Mingo took seventh with 167, and Pleasantville finished eighth with 190

Freshman Chloe Glosser was the top runner for Pekin, finishing third in 20:25.00. Lauren Steigleder was close behind, finishing fifth in 20:44.00. Brooke Miller and Audrey Fariss took 12th and 13th, respectively, with times of 22:36.00 and 22:51.00. Brooke Sylvester finished 23rd in 23:47.00, Renae Eubanks was 30th in 24:26.00, and Lexi Swearingen finished 34th in 24:45.00.

Brady McWhirter will be representing Pekin in the boys’ state race Friday after taking second place in the state-qualifying meet with a time of 17:03.12, less than 23 seconds behind the winning Madrid runner.

AS a team, Pekin finished fourth with 135 points. North Mahaska won the boys’ title with 76 points, beating out second place Madrid by 27 points. Collins-Maxwell claimed third place with 113.

Competing with McWhirter on the Pekin boys’ team were Cole Millikin who finished 27th in 19:43.03, Jaedon Wolver who was 28th in 19:46.93, Ben Guise finished 33rd in 20:12.14, and Dylan Sobaski finished 50th in 21:15.37.

The Panthers will compete this Friday, Oct. 28, at Kennedy Memorial County Park in Fort Dodge. The girls’ team will run in the Class 1A race at 10:30 and McWhirter’s race will begin at 11:15. The awards ceremony follows at 12:00.