Fast times at West Central Valley

STUART — Every Panther who ran at the West Central Valley invite last year improved upon their course time Thursday at the Wildcat Classic.

The girls came away with a third-place finish in the six-team field while the boys took fifth in losing a tiebreaker with Nodaway Valley for fourth. Eleven teams competed in the boys race.

Girls

Sophomore Cora Smith and junior Reese Strunk led the Panther pack with third and fourth place finishes, respectively. Smith posted a time of 20:28 while Strunk ran 20:50. Both runners took more than a minute off their course time from 2024. Smith’s time was a new personal best.

Senior Earlham runners Amanda Smith and Cadence Hammen came in first and second, running 20:02 and 20:03, respectively.

For the first time this season, the girls had enough runners to compete as a team. Earlham won the race with a score of 31. I-35 took silver with 48 points while Creston came in with 68.

Senior Maylee Riley cut nearly a minute and a half off her 2024 time, running a 23:43 to place 24th. The last two scorers came in 27th and 28th. Freshman Sarah Siders ran 23:54 and senior Abby Freeman ran 24:23, an improvement over her 26:47 in 2024.

Senior Grace Keeler rounded out the team with a time of 26:31, placing 39th.

Boys

Scoring five runners, Creston and Nodaway Valley tied at fourth in a score of 105. In the sixth-runner tiebreaker, the Wolverines’ Haden Colton finished 34th in 19:10, topping Johnathon Henry, Creston’s sixth runner, who placed 57th in 21:21.42.

Ankeny Christian won the team race with all five scorers in the top 15. Earlham and Saydel took second and third, respectively. Southwest Valley was 11th.

The Panthers’ scoring five are a young bunch, two freshman, two sophomores and a junior making up the crew.

The lone upperclassman, Wyatt Goodenberger, led the charge, running 17:12 to place seventh. He comes off a career-best performance in Glenwood where he ran 16:50. Freshman Ryder Baird also medaled with his 10th-place finish, running 17:30.

Freshman Matthew Warner finished 20th in a time of 18:22. Sophomores Merrick Wieland and Austin Jondle rounded out Panther scoring with times of 18:35 (24th) and 20:18 (26th).

Last year at West Central Valley, Goodenberger led the Panthers in a time of 18:57. This season, the top four finishers beat that time, showing the development of the program in just a year.

The seventh varsity runner was Aiden Craig who finished in 30:31.

Senior Akhdar Anis led Southwest Valley runners with a 20:18, placing 47th. Brody Sparks placed 58th (21:24), Ben Waddell 66th, (22:24), Lucas James 79th (23:26), Quaid Eddy 85th (24:25) and Henry Means 105th (32:12).

The Panthers return to action tomorrow in Winterset. Last year, the girls took home sixth place with Van Meter winning the team championship. Bondurant-Farrar is the defending boys champion with Creston placing ninth last season.