by Caleb Peter

On Oct. 9., the PCM cross country team ran at the Heart of Iowa Conference championship meet hosted by South Hamilton High School in Jewell. The girls’ team got third place. The boys’ team got eighth. Freshman Beau Webb was the boys top finisher in 24th with 19:04. Sophomore Jason Stafford was in 26th place with 19:07. Next across the line was sophomore Jacob Cox who ran 21:04 to place 47th and senior Brady North ran 21:09 to earn the 48th spot. Senior Caleb Peter completed the scoring runners with 50th place in 21:32.

For the girls, senior Baylee Smith received 10th place with 21:45, which was a personal best.

“The cold weather really helped me run better, and I was also very focused on getting a fast time so we could improve the team average for state rankings,” Smith said.

Junior Kirstin Ives got 12th in 21:57. Both earned All-Conference honors by placing in the top 14. Sophomore Klaire Jungling was 23rd with a personal record of 22:51, junior Megan Townley got 25th in 22:59, and the last scoring runner was senior Ellie Steenhoek in 25:06.

This was the last meet before districts. The team is looking forward to improving their times. The girls’ team has a lot of potential to go to state, and the conference meet with two ranked 3A teams was a good picture of the kind of competition they will face at districts against state-ranked 2A teams.

“I need to make sure I am staying healthy and being careful. Almost the entire girls’ team was sick last year during team qualifying, and I really don’t want a repeat of that again this year,” Smith said. ”The girls have a real chance of making to state this year as a team, and I just want to make sure I am being the best senior leader that I can be.”

Districts will be held at Central College’s cross country course tonight, Oct. 19. The girls run at 3 p.m. and the boys run at 3:30 p.m.