Ita, Perry lead Panther XC teams at first meet

WILLIAMSBURG ? The Mt. Pleasant cross-country teams ran in their first races of the season at the Williamsburg Raider Invitational yesterday.

The girls placed third in the seven-team meet, and the boys took sixth in a field of nine teams.

Natalie Ita led the girls team with a time of 17:26, which was 20 seconds faster than her time on the Williamsburg course last season. She placed sixth overall.

?Natalie Ita has been unafraid to lead, which is great,? said Coach Jean Caboth.

Ita was followed across the line by Chloe Haffarnan, 18:07, 11th place; Emma Ludwig, 18:22, 14th place; Maddie Lance, 18:47, 17th place; Hannah Weber, 20:05, 31st place; Megan Shumaker, 21:19, 38th place; and Maddy Long, 23:56, 44th place.

Weber, who usually leads the Mt. Pleasant pack, has been dealing with an irritated hip.

?We did well overall,? Caboth said. ?We need a little more endurance work, but some runners are much stronger than last year. All of our top four runners ran a lot this summer and we can see the results of that effort now. We still have to work on our No. 5, 6 and 7 runners, though.?

The Panthers finished with 79 points as a team. Williamsburg won the meet with 50 points, and Benton snuck into second with 73 points.

On the boys? side, the Panthers were led by Drew Perry?s 16th-place finish with a time of 19:11.

Second for the Panthers was Tommy Thorne, who crossed the line in 19:25 for 22nd place overall. Logan Mulford finished on Thorne?s heels with a time of 19:27 for 23rd place.

He was followed by Kolby Raymond, 19:51, 28th palce; Brach Prough, 20:10, 35th place; Henry Pham, 20:18, 36th place; and Derek Holtkamp, 21:23, 46th place.

?Brach Prough and Henry Pham (each) dropped three to four minutes from last year here,? Coach Mitch Anderson said.

The team scored 124 points overall. The top three teams were Vinton (53 points), Mid-Prairie (76 points) and Benton (94 points).

At the JV level, the Panthers? Drake Martin won his race with a time of 20:06 and earned a spot in the varsity lineup for the next meet, which will be the Pella Invite on Saturday, Sept. 1, at 11 a.m.