Panther cross-country runners take advantage of chilly weather

TROY MILLS ? When the temperature dropped, so did the Mt. Pleasant girls? cross-country race times.

The temperature was at the freezing point when the Panthers stepped up to the starting line at the North Linn Invitational on Saturday, but they weren?t complaining.

?Every girl ran a season?s best time,? Mt. Pleasant Girls? Coach Jean Caboth said. ?They liked running in the cold weather ? they could breathe better.?

Chloe Haffarnan ran a time of 15:34 in the 4K race to lead the Panthers. She finished in 21st place in a field of 130 runners.

?All the varsity runners did well and Chloe ran a determined race from the start to the finish,? Caboth said.

Following Haffarnan was Emma Ludwig, who placed 33rd with a time of 15:56. Ellie Conrad was 42nd with a time of 16:10, and Natalie Ita ran a time of 16:14 to finish 46th overall. Maddie Lance wrapped up the Mt. Pleasant scoring with a 57th-place finish in a time of 16:32.

Also running for Mt. Pleasant were Megan Shumake (103rd, 18:15) and Emma Smith (117th, 18:55). Hannah Weber, who usually runs on the varsity team, was rested for the meet.

The Panthers finished with 189 points to take seventh of 16 teams. Solon won the meet with 56 points.

?This is so much better than we did last Tuesday at Centerville,? Caboth said. ?We are ready for the conference meet coming up this week. The competition was tough and we rose to the ocassion.?

On the boys? side of the meet, Drew Perry led the Panthers with a 38th-place finish of 144 runners in a time of 17:58 on the 5K course.

Logan Mulford crossed the line in 40th place at 18:00, and Tommy Thorne finished one second later in 41st place. Thorne was followed by Brach Prough in 50th place with a time of 18:11.

?Our top four finished within 10 seconds (of each other),? Coach Mitch Anderson said. ?Those guys were 30 seconds under our best from a year ago.?

Henry Pham wrapped up the scoring with a 72nd-place finish in a time of 18:50.

Josh Beelman (87th, 19:18) and Drake Martin (101st, 19:56) also ran for the Panthers.

Mt. Pleasant finished with a team score of 241 for 10th place of 20 teams.

Monticello won the event with 19 points as a team.

?Today was very tough competition with five ranked teams ahead of us, but that is why we go,? Anderson said. ?We were without (Derek Holtkamp), who is usually in our top 3-5, so our score reflected that, but the boys did a nice job competing today.?

In the JV races, the Mt. Pleasant girls were led by Grace Lutovsky?s 29th-place finish in a time of 18:30. There were 109 runners in the 4K race.

Faith Pope led the JV boys? team with his best finish of the season, a time of 20:39 to finish in 43rd place in the 5K race. Alex Ita finished in step with Pope, also clocking a time of 20:39 and taking 44th place.

The Panthers will run again on Thursday at the Southeast Conference meet in Ft. Madison before they compete at the state qualifying meet in Amamosa on Oct. 18.