The ACGC cross country teams placed well in the West Central Activities Conference meet at Lake Panorama on Thursday, with the 11th ranked Charger girls finishing as runners-up to rival, and perhaps nemesis, Panorama which is ranked at the number 7 spot statewide. Panorama scored 27 points, while the Chargers scored 46 points and Madrid finished a distant third with 90 points. It was the seventh consecutive time the Panthers have defeated the Chargers, hence the nemesis label for Panorama.

The 14th ranked Charger boys finished third behind 9th ranked Woodward Academy and 11th ranked Madrid in a very close team race. Woodward Academy scored 66 points, followed by Madrid with 69 points and ACGC with 71 points.

"I was pleased with the performances that both squads gave overall," coach Colin Shawgo offered after the meet. "The girls went out and took care of business getting a solid second place. We got a better score than last year with a 46. The boys fought extremely hard, and outperformed their projections to get third. It was disappointing to lose to Madrid by just two points and to miss the championship by five points behind Woodward Academy. This team has made much progress during the season, as we closed the point gap versus both Madrid and Woodward Academy from earlier meets. This meet really sets things up for a great state qualifying meet next week at Holstein."

Charger ace girl runner, Kate Crawford, lost for the first time this year, as Panorama's Ella Waddle edged out Crawford by 28 seconds. Waddle's time was 19:41.48, while Crawford ran the course in 20:09.25. Emma Swanson finished fourth with a time of 20:56.65, only two seconds out of third place. Other place winners for the Chargers were Lauryn Embleton who finished sixth in 21:46.28, Keely Vasey who finished seventeenth with a time of 23:27, and Sabrina Ure who ran the course in 23:53.88, good for twentieth place.

Others running for ACGC were Alyson Embleton (24:36.29-24th), Jackie Trujillo-Garcia (25:03.66-32nd), Malena Rumelhart (25:45.58-44th), Sara Schmeling (25:59.11-49th), Reagan Rumelhart (26:02.93-61st), Kennedy Young (27:11.11-62nd), and Mady Suhr (29:52.94-75th).

A total of 90 girls competed.

Noah Nelson turned in another good performance for the boys, finishing third in a time of 17:28.02. Nelson was just nine seconds out of second place and thirteen seconds from finishing first. Clay Billheimer also ran well for the Chargers, as he finished right behind Nelson in fourth place with a time of17:51.58. Garrett Young, who finished seventeenth in 18:30.73, Quenton Spack , who ran 18:50.76 for 23rd pace, and Carter Schildberg, who was 24th in18:53.01, also figured in the scoring for ACGC.

Other Charger runners were Easton Benson (19.08.35-31st), Ben Young (19:12.53-32nd), Donnie Swanson (19:39.24-39th), Zach Moon (20:21.7-53rd), Joe Davis (20:26.50-57th), Blaine Beeler (21:32.51-81st), Nash Ayers (21:34.16-82nd), Noah Sargent (21:36.82-84th), Sam Madsen (21:55.25-88th), and Matt Hanner (22:58.37-102nd). One hundred and thirty seven runners finished the course.

Several Chargers earned all-conference honors. Kate Crawford and Emma Swanson were named to the first team for the girls, while Lauryn Embleton was named to the second team. Noah Nelson and Clay Billheimer were named to the first team for the boys.

Next up for both the Charger teams is the state qualifying meet next Thursday, Oct. 19 at Holstein. The top three teams and the top fifteen individual runners will qualify for the state meet in Fort Dodge.

Team Scores

Girls Boys

Panorama 27 Woodward Academy 66

ACGC 46 Madrid 69

Madrid 90 ACGC 71

Earlham 117 DMC 83

WCV 147 Ogden 104

Ogden 152 Earlham 120

W-G 162 W-G 223

Van Meter 181 WCV 266

Van Meter 267