Short-handed Mustangs face tough field at Nevada

COLO — The PCM cross country teams both were short-handed against a tough field on Monday.

The Mustangs both faced a trio of state-ranked squads and a handful of other Class 3A programs during the Nevada Cub Invitational at Hickory Grove Park.

The 2A No. 11 PCM girls were without three varsity regulars and another runner who has been on varsity this season, while the boys did not have two of its top five in Coby DeRaad and Gabe Nessa.

Still, the Mustang girls finished fourth in a 10-team field and trailed 2A No. 17 Roland-Story by only 28 points. The PCM boys took sixth in the 11-team field and trailed 2A No. 18 Roland-Story by only 14 points.

Class 3A No. 10 Gilbert scored 65 points to win the girls’ team title. Class 3A No. 13 North Polk (73) was eight points behind in second with 2A No. 17 Roland-Story (100), 2A No. 11 PCM (128) and Iowa Falls-Alden (129) completing the top five.

West Marshall (153), Nevada (154), BCLUW (169), East Marshall (205) and South Hamilton (241) finalized the field.

The PCM girls did not have the services of Abi Teeter, Bailey Wheeler, Annie Ford or Paiten Rumbaugh due to either injury or illness, according to PCM head cross country coach Eric Osterhaus.

Lila Milani led the way in seventh with a time of 22 minutes, 6.7 seconds. Darbey DeRaad (22:10.2) was next in ninth.

Raegan Vannoy (23:40.3) finished 30th, Ali Hilsabeck (24:04.5) took 38th and Alexis Fagg (25:46.5) ended up 52nd as the final scoring runner. Katelynn Fagg (26:02.4) was a non-scoring runner in 54th.

Class 3A No. 15 Alexis Hergenreter of North Polk won the girls’ 5K race in 20:13.7. Iowa Falls-Alden’s Demi Beaubien was the runner-up in 20:56.3.

The Mustang boys scored a respectable 165 points without two of its top runners.

Class 3A No. 1 Gilbert posted a perfect score of 15 after its five scoring runners went 1-2-3-4-5. North Polk (81) edged 3A No. 16 Nevada (82) in second and the rest of the top five featured West Marshall (142) and 2A No. 18 Roland-Story (151).

PCM (165) led the next group in sixth with South Hardin (214), East Marshall (219), Iowa Falls-Alden (220), BCLUW (259) and South Hamilton (270) completing the field.

The Mustangs were led by Kash Fischer in 11th. His 5K time was 18:43. Owen Osterhaus (19:28.3) finished 21st.

Joe Shaver (20:28.9), Rylan Edgington (20:30.3), Charlie Ford (20:42.4) and Kolby Clark (20:44.4) were separated by only 16 seconds in 43rd, 44th, 46th and 47th, respectively.

Clark and Wyatt Vannoy (21:09.8) were the non-scoring runners. Vannoy placed 49th.

Class 3A No. 3 Logan Bleich of Gilbert won the boys’ race in 17:10.3 and 3A No. 5 Jacob Tallman of Gilbert was the runner-up in 17:19.