by Kinsey Phipps

On the afternoon of April 12, the PCM girls’ varsity track team headed to Norwalk for a very tough meet. Being the smallest school there, the Mustangs knew they had their work cut out for them if they were to continue their goal of placing top three in every meet competed. Girls in events across the board set personal bests, season bests and placed all around. The Mustangs had two first-place finishes and finished third overall with 102.5 points.
In the 800, senior Rachel Peter won the gold and set a new personal best with a time of 2:29.11. Sophomore Rachel Stafford was right behind her with 2:31:94. Sophomore Jayci Vos also got first place in the 400 hurdles with a new season-best time of 1:08.08.
Clarke, juniors Emily Hugen and Ashley Van Gorp and Vos placed second in the 4×200 with a time of 1:52.48 which was a season-best. The group also placed second in the 4×100 as a season-best and the sprint medley with times of 53.40 and 1:57.04 respectively. Peter placed second also with a season-best time in the 1500 running 5:13.49.
“I’m proud of the way we performed. We were the smallest school with the smallest numbers, and yet we placed third, just 10 points away from first place,” senior Mackenzie Clarke said.
In field events, Van Gorp placed fifth in long jump with 14’11 1/2”. Senior Grace Telfer also placed fifth in discus with 102’10 1/2”, and third in shot-put with a distance of 35’9”
“We are extremely pleased with the girls’ efforts and performances tonight. We were the smallest school there, yet we were able to place in the top three in the meet. Not only were we in the top three, but we were within 10 points of first place,” PCM Head Coach Bridget Martin said. “One of our team goals is to score in the top three at every meet this year, and we knew this one was going to be a tough one to accomplish that. We are so proud of the girls’ work ethic tonight to reach that goal. We had a lot of personal and season bests accomplished tonight which means we are moving in the right direction.”