In a meet loaded with highly ranked teams the AC/GC boys’ cross country team finished about where they should according to the polls, as they placed sixth in the rugged Panorama Invitational on Thursday behind five teams ranked higher than the Chargers. The fourteenth ranked Chargers finished behind top ranked Nodaway Valley, Madrid (ranked 13th), Woodward Academy (11th), Tri Center (9th), and Ogden (8th). With nineteen teams in the field, all ten of the WCAC teams competed, with ACGC finishing fourth among them. The Chargers scored 161 points, while team champion Nodaway Valley was impressive with a total of 43 points.

Charger coach Colin Shawgo recognized the challenge his team faced when he said, “Of the teams that were at the meet, seven were ranked including the Chargers. To make matters even tougher, we entered the meet without Clay Billheimer, one of our regular varsity boys. But we were still able to finish sixth, as the rest of the Charger pack picked up the slack and finished better than they usually do. Coach Dose and I were extremely happy with how the boys fought through the adversity.”

Noah Nelson again paced AC/GC runners with a fourth place finish in a time of 17:45. Other Chargers figuring in the scoring were Garrett Young (23rd place, 18:53), Quenton Spack (32nd, 19:19), Easton Benson (48th, 19:50), and Gunnar Larsen (60th, 20:19). Other participants for ACGC were Ben Young (20:27), Donnie Swanson (20:30), Joe Davis (21:10), Noah Sargent, (21:52), Nash Ayers, (22:12), Blaine Beeler (22:24), Sam Madsen (22:31), Matt Hanner (22:46), Zach Fees, (22:48), and Seth Danker (24:13). Two hundred and thirty three runners competed in the boy’s race.

In the girls race the Chargers again finish second to county and conference rival Panorama, as Panorama had a score of 43 to the Chargers 91. Kate Crawford was impressive once more as she won her fourth consecutive meet of the year in a time of 20:07. Emma Swanson finished fifth in 21:16, while Lauryn Embleton was seventh in a time of 22:50. Rounding out the scoring for AC/GC were Keely Vasey (32nd, 25:08) and Jackie Trujillo-Garcia (57th, 26:38). Other runners for the Chargers were Aubrey Chmelar (26:58), Sabrina Ure (27:08), Kennedy Young (27:22), MacKenzie Reinhart (27:53), Reagan Rumelhart (27:54), Alyson Embleton (28:50), and Taylor Lemke (32:49).

“Kate pulled away at the beginning and cruised to the finish,” Shawgo commented. “The rest of the girls had gutsy races to beat fourteenth ranked Tri Center and finished second to ninth ranked Panorama. We were dealing with a lot of injuries and sickness, but the girls still proved that they deserve a top fifteen ranking.”

Next competition for the teams is at Audubon next Thursday, September 21. The first race will begin at 4:30 PM.

Girls’ Team Scoring Boys’ Team Scoring

Panorama 43 Nodaway Valley 43

AC/GC 91 Madrid 90

TriCenter 96 Wood. Academy 117

Madrid 135 TriCenter 139

Ogden 158 Ogden 154

Boyer Valley 180 AC/GC 161

Earlham 184 DMC 169

Clarke 225 Earlham 204

Nodaway V. 226 Panorama 210

WCV 234 Boyer Valley 301

Mt. Ayr 245 Mt. Ayr 326

Van Meter 275 IKM-Manning 336

Wood-Gr. 303 WCV 365

Colo-NESCO 322 Wood-Granger 370

Van Meter 377

Ank. Chr. Academy 401

Ia. Chr. Academy 427

Clarke 549

Colo-NESCO 559