Another successful outing for both Panorama cross country teams yesterday in the 4th annual Wildcat Cross Country Relays held at the 5 x 80 golf course in Menlo.
Coming into the meet the Lady Panthers were the only ranked girls team in the field while the Panther boys were one of just two ranked boys teams. Through it all the Lady Panthers took the meet by storm peppering the top 15 runners, including a clean sweep of the top three spots. Ella Waddel traveled the 5 kilometer distance in the fastest time, besting the entire field with 20:24.33. Devyn Kemble and Brianna Hoffman were right on the freshmen’s heels placing 2nd and 3rd with times of 21:16.80 and 22:16.62. The Lady Panthers placed three more in the top 15 with Gwen Steffen in 5th, sister Oliva Steffen in 7th, and Brooklyn Behrends in 13th. The Panther girls totaled 6 runners in the top 15 with 7 in the top 20, the most of any school in the entire meet. The Lady Panthers as a team took the crown with a score of 18, which set a school record for lowest score in school history.
On the boys side, if you just watched the Panther yesterday, you’d never know that half their roster is inexperienced by taking 2nd as a team with 69 points and a team time of 1:36:29.11. Reigning 1A champion Nodaway Valley stole the show with 15 points and five runners inside the top six spots.
Josh Carstens and Danny Nordquist led the way for the Panther boys placing 6th and 7th with times of 18:10.98 and 18.24.47 respectively. The Panthers totaled 5 runners inside the top 25 finishers.
With two meets down, both Panther squads will now be eyeing a third straight meet placing 2nd or better when they travel to Greene County next Thursday for a meet beginning at 4:30 pm
A complete list of results for yesterday’s meets are below: