MP girls win home meet

Henry County had winners galore at the Mt. Pleasant Panther cross-country invitational on Tuesday evening. Mt. Pleasant won the big school girls' race, Danville-New London swept the small school team standings, and there was plenty of indidual gold for area athletes.

Mt. Pleasant's girls team continued to show their dominance over the Southeast Conference. The Panthers defeated all other SEC teams with ease, scoring 29 points, which was 32 spots better than Fairfield and Ft. Madison, who tied for second.

The Panthers had just six runners going for varsity, and all made the top 11. Abby Ryon had a big win individually, taking the race in 19:24.46, a full 32 seconds better than second-place Ashley Bloomquist of Fairfield.

Cristina Carthey, Maggie Jennings and Claire Holtkamp finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively. Carthey finished in 21:56.90. Jennings was behind her, at 22:00.02, and Holtkamp crossed in 22:52.33.

Kendall Dascher was 10th, coming across the line in 23:31.27. Abby Blint rounded out the Panthers with an 11th place time of 23:34.99.

Cody Mertens dominated the big school boys' race in 16:35.28, helping Mt. Pleasant finish in third place overall with 58 points. Fairfield won as a team, scoring 39.

It took over a minute before the next runner crossed the line. Washington's Evan Horak finished second in 17:47.28.

The Panthers had another top-five finisher in Dalton Moyle. He crossed the tape in fourth place, finishing with a time of 18:00.46. Drake Snavely was the next Panther runner across, taking 16th place with a time of 19:42.99.

Thad Brooks was 17th in 19:53.28. Nick McCormick finished 20th in 20:03.75. Logan White was 21st in 20:06.09. Luke Ryon placeed 27th in 21:46.80.

It was all Danville-New London in the small school girls' race. D-NL placed all seven runners in the top 15 and had a one-two punch up top.

Lexi Brown won the small school race, crossing the line in 20:00.43. Addy Parrott was second, in 20:13.21.

Other D-NL finishers were Alyssa Pfadenhauer (seventh, 22:46.99), Allyson Farley (10th, 23:02.84), Carissa Mackey (12th, 23:28.40), Yaley BreAnn (13th, 23:34.71) and Lilly Garnsey (17th, 24:28.02).

Winfield-Mt. Union's top runner on the girls' side was Isabella Mertens (18th, 24:32.31). Avery Maeder was 20th in 24:38.43. Whitney Vantiger placed 22nd in 25:41.14, and Kaden Fisk was 41st, in 29:22.18.

The WACO girls were led by Grace Conwell (26th, 26:37.37). Other Warrior finishers were Makenzie Shelman (30:19.12), Jackayla Vradenburg (49th, 33:15.37) and Caitlin Sells (50th, 35:51.43).

D-NL won the boys' race as well, placing four in the top 15 to take the top spot. Winfield-Mt. Union placed fifth.

D-NL was led by freshman duo Julian Alexander (fourth, 18:25.17) and Ty Carr (fifth, 18:37.12). Cody Welch was 10th, in 19:31.90, and Gabe Gourley placed 12th, in 19:34.31.

Other D-NL finishers were Seth Bailey (17th, 20:01.09), Oliver Sowell (19th, 20:07.90) and Max Wilcox (22nd, 20:15.90).

W-MU got a nice race out of Brody Barton, who finished third in 18:14.46. Other Wolves to cross were Asa Gipple (20th, 20:09.28), Dane Sweezer (29th, 21:16.65), Talon Newton (21:44.90), Calvin Destiny (61st, 24:06.90), Avinn Newton (64th, 24:18.36), Jack Moody (65th, 24:27.18) and Ben Hemsworth NA, 30:12).

WACO racers from the boys' race were Jonah Elgi (13th, 19:39.24), Tanner Conwell (42nd, 22:13), Larz Smith (47th, 22:28.34), Joe Edeker (49th, 22:52.59), Taylor Sutton (23:23.30) and Tim Ackles (70th, 25:07.96