The time is now for MP girls

The past few years have been a time of change for the Mt. Pleasant girls' cross-country team. The team hired a new head coach in Lyle Murray and saw many promising runners grow in the program.

Over the past couple of seasons, the girls' XC team rose from a middle-of-the-pack SEC team to the clear favorites, thanks in part to a stacked senior class.

The Panther girls didn't lose a single varsity runner from last season. The top seven in 2018 were four juniors, a sophomore and two freshman.

Mt. Pleasant dominated the conference meet in 2018, placing seven in the top 10, but couldn't quite get to state as a team when the district race came to town, despite having some of the best depth in the area.

'It definitely motivated us a lot,” says Kendall Dascher, one of the returning seniors. 'We didn't lose anybody on varsity last year, so we kind of knew what to expect, and I think we've all worked hard over the summer. I'm excited to see what we can do.”

The senior class has grown up together on the team. With no seniors last year, they were called to be team leaders as juniors, and now they've got one more year to cash in on their collective talent.

'This year is definitely different,” Dascher says. 'It's a little bitter-sweet. We've definitely grown a lot together over the years, and now it's just one last time. It has definitely become a family, and that's going to be something that is really going to be hard to leave.”

Along with Dascher, seniors Maggie Jennings and Claire Holtkamp finished top 10 in conference. Abby Ryon, a state-qualifier from last year, won the conference meet last season, and comes into this season as the 15th-ranked indidual runner in Class 3A, according to IowaRunJumpThrow.

Junior Cristina Carthey and sophomores Monroe Swain and Abby Blint will all be coming off top-10 performances as well.

Ryon has been the top runner for the Panther girls since her freshman year. She is no stranger to the state meet, but she says she really wants the team to be able to make the trip together.

'I really want to go to state,” Ryon says. 'I know we can. I know we're capable of it. We just have to go out there and do it, wrap our minds around it and open the pickle jar, as I Iike to say.”

Ryon is the clear favorite in the SEC last season. Her main rival and second-place SEC finisher Ashley Bloomquist, of Fairfield, graduated in the spring, leaving quite a bit of space between Ryon and the rest of the pack.

'I've had a great few months of training,” Ryon says. 'I've been getting up and running with the team in the mornings, and really building that team bond, but also doing some stuff on my own.”

The top returning challenger individually in the SEC is Jennings, who took third at the SEC meet last year. The only top-10 SEC returners that aren't wearing Maroon and Gold are sophomores Katelyn Dennis, of Ft. Madison, and Kelsey Pacha, of Washington. Dennis finished fourth in the conference last year and Pacha took 10th.

With the depth in the Mt. Pleasant lineup, the Panthers look to be on the road to repeating as conference champs, but the runners know the big prize is at the end of the season, when the district meet rolls back around.

'The ultimate goal this year is to qualify the team for state,” Dascher says. 'That's where we're shooting for. We're going to set the goal high and go for it.”