by Taylor Burns

Two consecutive wins for the girls’ varsity track team had them competing their best to add to their winning record, but on April 10, the Mustangs fell short of a win in Norwalk. Norwalk, with the home track advantage, won the meet, only 33 points ahead of the Mustangs in fourth place out of eight teams with 100 points.

PCM was the only 2A school in Norwalk, which head coach Bridget Martin said, “Is a great opportunity for us to take advantage of some tough competition.”

The weather was not in the Mustangs’ favor, either. It was around 70 degrees during the day, but as the sun died down, it was near 30 degrees with high wind gusts.

All-in-all, PCM did well against the bigger schools with two first place and five second place finishes.

The first place finishers were senior Jayci Vos in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:10. The 4×400-meter relay team with sophomore Paytan Schut, freshman Sierra Foster and seniors Tatum Nearmyer and Rachel Stafford placed first finishing in 1:56.03.

Sophomore Maddie Samson walked off the throwing ring with a second place win in shot put throwing 32 feet, 1 inch. The 4×800-meter relay team placed second 10:33.26. The team was Schut, sophomore Kirstin Ives, freshman Sayde White and Stafford. The shuttle hurdle team with sophomore Megan Cowman, freshman Lexi Kuecker, sophomore Morgan Uhlenhopp and senior Jayci Vos placed second crossing the finish line at 1:12.80. The third second place finish was the 4×200-meter relay team with junior Ashley Miller, Foster, Nearmyer and Vos. They ran 1:56.03. The final second place finisher was Stafford in the 800-meter run finishing at 2:33.96

“As the season progresses, we continue to try and figure out a few things. This team has a lot of different options and potential in a variety of events, which is a good problem to have. We will continue to focus on getting better everyday,” Martin said.

Although the team fell short on one of their team goals—placing in the top third of every meet—and don’t have a consecutive winning record anymore, they’re not giving up in the meets to come.

“It still feels pretty good because we were the smallest school there and that says a lot if we still place in the top five,” Nearmyer said. “I think that we will definitely know the competition and their abilities, so we can push ourselves and try our best to be top three.”

The girls’ will be competiting Thursday, April 20, at South Tama High School. Running events will start at 5 p.m.