Home meet, ranked foes bring out best in Panthers

     At the Monticello Invitational Cross Country Meet Sept. 14, and the numbers were impressive: 10 boys’ teams and five girls’ teams either ranked statewide or listed as “teams to watch.”

     The Monticello Panthers came up with some encouraging numbers of their own: seven personal records for the boys (including junior varsity), three for the girls, and a pair of fourth place finishes for each varsity team.

     Not surprisingly, the top-ranked Class 2A teams were the overall team champions in the race; Tipton for the boys and Mid-Prairie for the girls.

     For Monticello, in both cases, the teams had “the best performances we’ve had this year,” Panther coach Dan Sauser said.

     The Panther teams took well to the reconfigured course at Monticello High School, where much of the course of previous years is now part of the middle school construction project.

     The girls were led by Emma Althoff, who finished seventh overall, just missing the 19-minute range with a time of 20:01; and Karle Kramer, 11^th in 20:19. Kramer’s time was a personal record.

     “We had a good one-two punch up front, but we also had good races out of our 3-4-5 runners,” Sauser said. “All three (Triniti Etzel, Lydia Recker, Emily Hendricks) set season bests.”

     Katie Roher and Karli Recker set season best times as well, as did the entire JV team.

     The top five varsity runners had a team time that was 4:47 faster than the team time of a year ago.

     The Panther boys were equally strong. Sauser said he was most encouraged that the top five runners now only took about four minutes off last year’s team time, but were separated, first to fifth, by just 17 seconds.

     “That’s almost unheard of,” Sauser said. “This was the first meet in which we were really able to run as a pack. That’s what is going to make the boys really good.”

     Those runners included Jasper Nietert (18^th, 17:26), Zach Chapman, Cole Cruise, Carter Kurt and Harrison Ahlrichs. Nietert, Chapman and Kurt recorded personal records. Grant Hospodarsky, the team’s sixth runner, set a PR by about a minute.

     In both junior varsity races, Monticello finished third. For the JV boys, Dylan Ponder and Gavin Baugh earned letters by beating the 19:30 standard. Ponder was sixth in the JV race; Baugh 12^th. They also recorded PRs, as did Levi Temple, Dominik Chally, Keagan Glawatz, Erlin Bell and Noah Webber. All but two of the runners posted season best times.

     The JV girls were the first to run at the meet.

     “They did an outstanding job of setting the tempo,” Sauser said.

     Sarah Spence led the team with a sixth place finish, taking almost two minutes off her season best; and Mya Postel was 11^th, knocking about 2:30 off her previous season best. Maddie Stadtmueller and Faith Hansen recorded PRs.

Cascade schedule changes

     Scheduling changes have been announced for the Cascade Invitational Sept. 19, held at Fillmore Fairways.

     Middle school girls will run at 4 p.m., middle school boys at 4:30 p.m. For high school, JV and varsity teams will run together; girls at 5 p.m., boys at 5:30 p.m.

     It should also be noted that the meet is on a Thursday, rather than the traditional Friday date.

Sept. 14

Monticello Inv.

VARSITY BOYS TEAM SCORES

     1, Tipton 47; 2, Western Dubuque 56; 3, Center Point-Urbana 88; 4, Monticello 120; 5, Mid-Prairie 123; 6, Camanche 163; 7, Maquoketa Valley 198; 8, Davenport Assumption 200; 9, Jesup 228; 10, Cascade 291; 11, Anamosa 297; 12, Wilton 321; 13, Clayton Ridge 368; 14, Springville/Central City 398; 15, Dyersville Beckman 426.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     18, Jasper Nietert, 17:26; 22, Zach Chapman, 17:32; 23, Cole Cruise, 17:33; 28, Carter Kurt, 17:43; 29, Harrison Ahlrichs, 17:43; 51, Grant Hospodarsky, 18:48; 65, Carter Cruise, 19:35.

VARSITY GIRLS TEAM SCORES

     1, Mid-Prairie 52; 2, Western Dubuque 79; 3, Center Point-Urbana 104, 4, Monticello 115; 5, Davenport Assumption 119; 6, Jesup 144; 7, Springville/Central City 190; 8, Tipton 199; 9, Anamosa 207; 10, North Linn 225; 11, Maquoketa Valley 295; 12, Camanche 341.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     7, Emma Althoff, 20:01; 11, Karle Kramer, 10:19; 29, Triniti Etzel, 22:17; 32, Lydia Recker, 22:21; 36, Emily Hendricks, 22:29; 52, Katie Roher, 23:15; 65, Karli Recker, 24:16.

JV BOYS TEAM SCORES

     1, Western Dubuque 28; 2, Tipton 36; 3, Monticello 91; 4, Cascade 141; 5, East Dubuque, Ill., 153; 6, Center Point-Urbana 177; 7, Mid-Prairie 197; 8, Jesup 202; 9, Davenport Assumption 233; 10, Anamosa 256; 11, Dyersville Beckman 314; 12, Clayton Ridge 361.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     6, Dylan Ponder, 19:16; 12, Gavin Baugh, 19:20; 19, Levi Temple, 19:56; 25, Kale Hansen, 20:16; 29, Jayden Orcutt, 20:46; 34, Jacob Miller, 20:55; 4, Dominik Chally, 21:13; 51, Keagan Glawatz, 21:16; 58, Connor Hynick, 21:38; 59, Nathan Oswald, 21:40; 67, Hayden Tomkins, 22:10; 73, Cord Nietert, 22:19; 77, Erlin Bell, 22:27; 84, Trey Kuper, 22:54; 89, Noah Webber, 23:16; 95, Nathan Sauser, 23:56; 122, Michael Berta, 29:16.

JV GIRLS TEAM SCORES

     1, Mid-Prairie 33; 2, Western Dubuque 50; 3, Monticello 60; 4, Center Point-Urbana 107; 5, Jesup 137; 6, Clayton Ridge 166; 7, North Linn 191.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     6, Sarah Spence, 23:34; 11, Mya Postel, 24:14; 13, Maddie Stadtmueller, 24:25; 14, Faith Hansen, 24:38; 16, Dru Kramer, 25:09; 25, Ella Glawatz, 25:45; 31, Savannah Freese, 26:15; 44, Jackie Stadtmueller, 26:28; 70, Kehde Campbell, 30:57.