by Taylor Burns

On a beautiful night, the PCM senior girls took their home track for their last home meet on April 25. The girls competed in Class A along with six other teams. They placed third with 128 points, five points behind West Marshall and 36 points behind South Tama, the winner of the PCM Invitational.
“It was a nice night to send off our seniors at their last home meet for senior night,” Head Coach Lindsey Cunningham said. “We want to thank them all for their leadership, dedication and hard for during their time running at PCM and can’t wait to see what they can do the rest of the season.”
The field events were first. Senior Ashley Van Gorp jumped the long 15-01, placing second. Senior Kiara Kappelmann threw a 94-08 in discus with freshman Maddie Samson throwing a 92-07, placed third and fourth. Sophomore Paige Wood placed fifth in shot put, throwing a 33-01.5, again with Samson right behind her throwing a 31-10 in sixth place.
Freshman Paytan Schut was first in the 3000-meter run, running a 12:14.51. Junior Rachel Stafford placed second in the open 800 run, running a 2:28.71, with sophomore Baylee Smith in fifth with a 2:43.12. Drake Relays qualifier junior Jayci Vos placed second in the 400 hurdles with a 1:09.16. The girls’ 4×200 was first with Vos, senior Emily Hugen, sophomore Ashley Miller and Van Gorp running a 1:50.86. The last race of the night was the 4×400, which consisted of Stafford, Van Gorp, Schut and Vos, placing second and running a time of 4:15.19.
“I enjoyed my last home meet,” Hugen said. “It’s great to have the community see what hard work the team has put in and how it’s paying off for us.”