By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
KILJ — The Mount Pleasant Panther boys’ and girls’ cross country swept the Large Division titles, while Danville-New London rolled to the Small Division titles at yesterday’s 40th Annual Mount Pleasant Cross Country Meet.
Starting with the boys’, Mount Pleasant’s Ben Carthey placed fifth — running 18:20.56 to pace the Panthers. Luke Ryon, Logan Lee and Nathan McWilliams all went top-10 as well, helping guide Mount Pleasant to the team championship.
Gabe Feldmann, Isaac Rynders and Gannon McNamee finished 14th, 15th, and 16th respectively, as well for Mitch Anderson’s group.
Mount Pleasant finished two points better than second place Fairfield to hold on for the team title.
Fort Madison finished third.
In Small Class boys’ top-ranked (2A) Danville-New London ran away — literally — from the competition as they rolled to yet another team championship.
The Tigers had the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th and 10th place finishers overall, led by terrific junior Ty Carr who finished with a time of 16:47.72.
Alexander Julian, Oliver Sowell and Seth Bailey were 2-through-4 for Danville-New London, while Columbus’ Isaac Acosta finished fifth.
Columbus took second in the team standings, while Winfield-Mount Union took third.
On the girls’ side of things, Mount Pleasant’s Abby Blint ran 21:13.28 to take home an individual championship and help guide the Panthers to a team title, last night.
Cristina Carthey finished third (21:52.90) and Belle Meador took fourth (21:57.17) for Lyle Murray’s squad.
Elsie Lange also finished top-5 for the Panthers, running 22.35.99.
The Panthers finished with 37 team points, 18 better than that of second-place Fairfield.
In Small Class girls’, Danville-New London’s Addison Parrot won by nearly two minutes, running an absurd 19:29.68 to help guide the Tigers to the team title.
Carissa Mackey placed third for Danville-New London, running 21:44.18.
The Tigers ended with the 6th, 8th and 15th total finishers as well, which helped cement their 20-point first place finish.
Cardinal took second in the Small Class standings with 62 points.
On the JV front, the Panther boys’ were champions while the girls placed third.