Three seemed to the number of the day for the ACGC cross country teams, as both girls' and boys' teams finished third at the Panorama Invitational yesterday afternoon. In addition, the Chargers' top female and male runners also placed third individually on the Panorama par three golf course. Sixteen girls' and twenty boys' teams made up the field. The Charger girls scored 99 points and finished behind conference rivals Panorama (53) and Earlham (90). Kate Crawford was the top ACGC runner, finishing the course in 20:25, just 18 seconds out of the runner up spot. Lauryn Embleton (22:33), (Rylee Sloss (24:09), Keeley Vasey (25:31), and Aubrey Chmelar (25:45) all figured in the scoring, as they finished 7th, 18th, and 33rd and 38th respectively.

On the boys' side, Noah Nelson took the number three spot with a time of 17:25, just two seconds out of second place and twenty six seconds out of the top spot. Others figuring in the scoring for ACGC were Clay Billheimer (18:20, for 13th place); Ben Young (19:37, 35th); Miles Kading (20:30, 48th); and Donnie Swanson (20:39, 50th).

Girl runners who did not figure in the scoring were Kenzie Reinhart (25:47, 40th); Malena Rumelhart (26:07, 47th); Reagan Rumelhart (28:34); and Belle Policky (29:04). Charger boys who participated but did not score were Eli Kading (20:43) and Blaine Beeler (22:14).

Given the fact that the teams had not participated in a meet for two weeks and that the competition was very good, Coach Shawgo was pleased with the results. " I was very happy with the performances by both teams after a long layoff," the Charger mentor commented. "We also had a tough week of practice, so the kids did well fighting through soreness. The boys beat a lot of ranked teams to get third behind the numbers one and two ranked teams in class 1A. The girls finished third behind two ranked teams, and closed the gap between themselves and Earlham. There was a lot of growth from both teams and it has me excited to see how the rest of the season will play out."

Next up for the Chargers will be their own invitational on Thursday ,September 20. The action will begin with junior high races at 4:30. The course is in the area of the high school grounds.

Girls' Team Scoring Boys' Team Scoring

Panorama 53 Madrid 31

Earlham . 90 Nodaway V. 86

ACGC 99 ACGC 149

Tri-Center . 143 DMC 153

Nodaway V. 145 Earlham 196

Madrid 170 Tri-Center 201

Greene Co. 179 Mt. Ayr 238

W-G 240 VM 240

Mt. Ayr 246 Wood Acad 258

SE Valley . 257 IKM-M 275

Boy'r Valley 262 Ogden 284

Van Meter . 295 W-G 313

Ogden 302 WCV 341

CAM 335 Greene Co . 344

Boy'r Valley 352

SE Valley 376

Panorama 377

Ank'y Chr Ac 434

Colo-Nesco . 484

CAM 514