OTTUMWA —
There’s no need to remind the Davis County girls how important every runner is in a cross country meet. The 10th-ranked Mustangs saw how big each runner can be in any given meet on Thursday.
Ballard and Davis County established a battle for the girls team title early on in the PCM Mustang Invitational as the two schools brought home the next five runners after North Polk’s Sybble Sears won the girls individual title. After each team brought home their top five runners, the Bombers and Mustangs found themselves dead even with 52 points apiece at the top of the team standings.
It all came down to a close battle for which team’s sixth finisher came home first. And in the end, by three places and just seven seconds, Maggie Hougland came home in 23rd place with the decisive tiebreaking finish to give Josh Husted’s squad a well-earned team title.
“Once in a great while, you have to go to that sixth runner. That obviously made a huge difference,” Husted said. “It just so happened that our sixth runner is a senior that’s been running for a while and understands that importance.
“I tell the kids all the time that every runner matters. It shows that every finish counts. You never know who is going to make the difference.”
Abby Jackson and Jenna Leland scored second and third-place finishes for Ballard, forcing Davis County to respond. The Mustangs did by taking the next three places with Ally McClure, Addie McKee and Chandra Smith all coming home within 11 seconds of each other with the fourth through sixth places.
Despite that run of top-10 success, Husted didn’t know if his team had done enough to win until it was time for the championship trophy to be presented.
“We thought they had won it until they announced the results,” Husted said. “Overall, our kids are a little tired with this being homecoming week. There’s a lot of activities for the kids to participate in.”
Centerville finished sixth in the team race with 146 points, highlighted by a ninth-place run by sophomore Cassidy Schacher in a time of 16:52. The biggest excitement on the boys side came in the finish, where the Big Reds’ Payton Busch was beaten by another runner for the first time this year.
Busch, who had won three of four races and had been disqualified after finishing first in another, settled for second place at PCM. The senior was beaten out by ninth-ranked Knoxville senior Wick Cunningham for the individual title.
Centerville finished seventh as a team with 208 points. Davis County, coming off their first win in 24 years last week, scored a fifth-place finish with 127 points led by an 11th-place run of 18:21 by Zach Hougland.
“Our boys were all in the top third of the pack. That’s a good sign to see,” Husted said. “I actually think they performed even better in this race then they did in the win at Lynnville considering the course and the field of talent in this meet.”
Davis County is back in action this weekend at Pekin’s Lake Darling Invitational on Saturday morning. Centerville is off until Tuesday’s Knoxville Invitational.
PCM ‘Mustang’ Invitational
At Monroe
9-20-12
(*-won on sixth-runner tiebreaker)
BOYS
Team scoring — 1. Knoxville 54, 2. Ballard 69, 3. North Polk 94, 4. West Marshall 116, 5. Davis County 127, 6. Durant 155, 7. Centerville 208, 8. Clarke 215, 9. Pella Christian 230, 10. Lynnville-Sully 235, 11. PCM 248, 12. Pleasantville 329.
Davis County Runners — 11. Zach Hougland 18:21, 17. Clay Roberts 18:46, 21. Justin Vollmer 18:52, 34. Cody Smith 19:26, 44. Chris Hervey 19:48, 54. Cody Good 20:24, 56. Shawn Emmons 20:30.
GIRLS
Team scoring — *-1. Davis County 52, 2. Ballard 52, 3. North Polk 74, 4. Durant 94, 5. Knoxville 119, 6. Centerville 146, 7. West Marshall 154.
Top Ten — 1. Sybble Sears (NP) 15:55, 2. Abby Jackson (Ballard) 16:14, 3. Jenna Leland (Ballard) 16:22, 4. Ally McClure (DC) 16:26, 5. Addie McKee (DC) 16:31, 6. Chandra Smith (DC) 16:37, 7. Alyssa Williams (Durant) 16:46, 8. Cheyanne Heinrich (Durant) 16:50, 9. Cassidy Schacher (Centerville) 16:52, 10. Victoria Pothat (WM) 16:58.
Davis County Runners — 4. McClure 16:26, 5. McKee 16:31, 6. Smith 16:37, 18. Marissa Hamburg 18:10, 19. Kaliegh Tharp 18:11, 23. Maggie Hougland 18:31, 32. Sydney Stargur 19:22.
Sports
September 20, 2012
Sixth runner Hougland lifts Mustang girls at PCM Invite
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