Panthers face strong foes at North Linn Invite

TROY MILLS ? Jean Caboth?s Mt. Pleasant girls? cross-country team had an impressive showing in the North Linn Invitational Saturday. The Panthers finished sixth in the 14-team field that was loaded with state-qualifying teams from last year.

?All of the teams that finished ahead of us, except (Iowa City) Regina, were state-qualifying teams last year,? she noted.

Solon won the team title with 34 points and Mt. Pleasant had 157 counters. In addition to the 14 teams, there were 10 incomplete teams in the field and a total of 115 runners in the varsity race.

Caboth also reported that the Panthers arrived a little late at the meet (the starting time was moved up due to the state marching band contest) and that impacted some of the girls performances because of the lack of warm-up time.

Sophomore Hannah Weber again led the Panther participants, running 16th in 16:21. Emma Ludwig and Natalie Ita both had season best times of 16:42 and 16:43, respectively for 28th and 29th place.

Next was Choloe Haffarnan, 47th, 17:17; Maddie Lance, 55th, 17:34; Hannah Wickham, 88th, 19:26; and Jasmin Tone, 90th, 19:34. Tone and Lance also turned in season bests.

?We had four season-best performances and this meet was a good lead-in to the conference meet on Thursday,? Caboth continued. ?This is the time to peak.? The Panthers are defending conference champs and the loop meet is in Fairfield.

Over 100 runners competed in the junior-varsity division. Mt. Pleasant was led by Katie Jones, who entered the chute 37th in 19:15. Other runners were Grace Lutovsky, 54th, 20:03; Amber Hainline, 74th, 21:17; and Emily Johnson, 75th, 21:54.