
by Caleb Peter
The PCM mustangs’ cross country team ran their home meet on Sept. 22. The runners exceeded expectations of all, the girls won as a team and senior Chris Ellens won first place again in the boys’ race. Several mustangs had season best times.
The girls’ team did a fantastic job getting first place out of
nine teams, scoring 33 points as a team. Seven mustang girls finished in the top 20.

Sophomore Paytan Schut was the first mustang runner to finish, clocking a time of 22 minutes, 33 seconds, getting second place out of 100 runners. Not far behind Schut, sophomore Kirstin Ives and senior Jayci Vos ran a close race, finishing fifth and sixth place, getting 22:57 and 23:16, respectively. Sophomore Megan Townley was next to cross the line, running a 23:54 and earning 12th place. Juniors Baylee Smith and Ellie Steenhoek got 15th and 18th place with times of 24:20 and 24:37, respectively. At 20th place, senior Rachel Stafford did her part by running a time of 24:45.
“It was just great to see them finally coming together as a team where I think they should be,” Karr said.
Once again, Ellens ran an awesome race, finishing first and clocking a time of 17:16.
“I’ve been working at it for four years, and the work’s really starting to pay off,” said Ellens.
“He ran a great race,” said Karr. “It’s really hard for Chris to run out by himself and chase a machine. It’s always easier to have somebody running with you, so hopefully we’ll get to a meet here soon to give him somebody to compete with.”

The boys’ team had a lot of really close personal records and two season PRs. I think they’re finally starting to believe in themselves and know that they can compete,” said Karr.
The Mustangs’ next meet is at Norwalk High School on Monday, Oct. 3, at 4:30 p.m.