Weber picks up pace to lead Panther girls

WILLIAMSBURG ? Sophomore Hannah Weber led the young Mt. Pleasant cross-country girls to a fourth-place finish last night, Aug. 30, with a time one and a half minutes faster than she ran last year in the Williamsburg Raider Invitational.

?Hannah Weber is running very well, as are Emma Ludwig and Natalie Ita,? Coach Jean Caboth said.

Weber dropped her finish time to 16:35 in the 2.5-mile varsity race, good for fifth place overall. Finishing behind her for the Panthers was sophomore Emma Ludwig at 17:35, closely followed by freshman Natalie Ita, who crossed the finish line at 17:43 in her first high school cross-country meet.

Mt. Pleasant?s fourth runner, sophomore Chloe Haffarnan, took a minute, 15 seconds off last year?s time to finish 24th overall with a time of 17:59. Wrapping up the scoring, junior Maddie Lance finished with a time of 18:18.

Juniors Kaitie Jones and Amber Hainline also ran varsity for the Panthers.

Mt. Pleasant took fourth out of seven teams, with a team total of 88 points after displacement scoring was used.

The third-place Benton team finished with 81 points, and Clear Creek-Amana scored 56 points for second place. Williamsburg ran away with the meet, finishing with a team score of 36 points.

?It is a place to start. Some girls are still getting in shape,? Caboth said.

After Mt. Pleasant, the score jumped to 139 points for fifth-place Mid-Prairie, Vinton-Shellsburg took sixth with 143, and Belle-Plaine wrapped up the scoring with a 181-point, seventh place finish.

The Mt. Pleasant junior varsity team, made up of freshman Hannah Wickham and juniors Jasmin Tone, Grace Lutovsky, Emily Johnson, and Amber Strait, placed fourth out of five teams.