L-S girls win team title at Pleasantville

PLEASANTVILLE — The Lynnville-Sully girls cross country team moved up to No. 6 in the latest Class 1A rankings that were released on Monday.

But after a convincing victory over third-ranked Martensdale-St. Marys at the Pleasantville Cross Country Invitational on Monday, the Hawks may be climbing a bit higher next week.

Lynnville-Sully put its five scoring runners in the top 12 and scored 41 points at the top of the standings at Pleasantville Golf Course. Colfax-Mingo also was in the tough field and placed ninth in the 10-team field.

“The girls got out early in the race as a tight pack and that would set the stage for how the race would unfold,” L-S head cross country coach Darin Arkema said. “I saw a lot of confidence in their looks and postures and they never settled to just be where they were at or hold their position.

“I don’t remember the last time an L-S girls team won a meet — probably back close to 10 years — so that tells you how well the girls competed tonight and have been running so far this season.”

Class 1A No. 3 Martensdale-St. Marys scored 71 points in second, while Interstate 35 (91), 1A No. 12 Grand View Christian (93) and Central Decatur (123) completed the top five.

Class 1A No. 20 Pleasantville (141) led the bottom five in sixth with Wayne (169), Montezuma (192), Colfax-Mingo (196) and Chariton (283) finalizing the field.

Mandeesa Vos led the Hawks in third. Her time was clocked in 20 minutes, 3.81 seconds.

Class 1A No. 16 Karson Oberender of Martensdale-St. Marys won the girls’ 5K race in 19:42.01 and 1A No. 19 Maclaine German of Martensdale-St. Marys was the runner-up in 19:43.67.

The Hawks’ next four scoring runners were 9-10-11-12 with Olivia Norrish (21:00.35), Peyton Sharp (21:17.51), Breah Lowry (21:23.29) and Emma Parkinson (21:31.35).

“Mandeesa was trying to track down the top two Martensdale girls and finished with a strong kick to pull away from two Grand View Christian runners who were with her nearly the whole race,” Arkema said. “Olivia, Peyton, Breah and Emma all were within 20-30 seconds of each other and I don’t think any of them were going to let another runner get between them. They pushed one another to race uncomfortable. It was awesome to have all of our first five in the top 15.”

Abigail Ver Ploeg (24:28.82) was a non-scoring runner in 36th.

Colfax-Mingo was led by Ashlynn Hosbond in 21st. She hit the finish line in 22:21.65.

Shae Wilkins (24:14.55) was 35th, Mallory Sipma (25:32.51) finished 48th and Lilyan Hadsall (27:27.41) came in 59th.

The final scoring Tigerhawk was Laila Kwaskiewicz, who was 61st in 27:41.59. Devan Chadwick (29:09.66) and Ava Van Maaren (32:50.48) were non-scoring runners in 69th and 84th, respectively.