New scenery: Panthers give Central DeWitt meet a try

     After years of competing in the North Linn invitational on the first week of October, the Monticello High School cross country teams tried a different meet this year, the Saber Invitational, hosted by Central DeWitt Oct. 4 at Grace Lutheran Camp in DeWitt.

     Panther head coach Dan Sauser approves.

     “It has a lot of twists and turns, but as a runner, it’s a wonderful course to run,” Sauser said. “It’s a scenic, beautiful facility, and it had lots of good competition.”

     The Panthers were a bit shorthanded for the meet, missing a top-four team runner on both the boys’ and girls’ sides due to illness. Monticello’s boys were seventh in their race, and the girls were eighth in theirs.

     “We were pleased with the results,” Sauser said. “We had great effort across the board.”

     The Panther boys were led by Cole Cruise, in 21^st place, but also had strong efforts by three seniors. Daltyn Kramer set a personal record by 10 seconds while finishing 31^st, David Titman had a season-best time while taking 33^rd, and Austin Timm – filling in for Zach Chapman, who was out with an illness – was the Panthers’ fifth best runner with a PR by 23 seconds. Jasper Nietert finished 41^st overall and Timm was 52^nd.

     “Austin did an outstanding job filling in for us. He looked strong and confident,” Sauser said.

     The girls, though finishing eighth, were champions in the Class 1A/2A division, despite missing Gabrielle Steiner – consistently one of the team’s top three runners – because of illness.

     “It’s good that they got that kind of recognition,” Sauser said. “Our girls are good, but Eastern Iowa is just loaded with talent.”

     Karle Kramer led the Monticello girls, finishing 10^th overall and tying her season-best time. Lydia Recker was 18^th and set a season-best time by 17 seconds.

     “That’s a nice confidence-builder for Lydia,” the coach said.

     Monticello’s junior varsity boys had the highest finish of any Panther team Thursday, taking fifth. Three sophomore Panthers – Gavin Baugh, Jayden Orcutt and Keagan Glawatz – had PR times, and five others had season bests.

     “That sophomore group is really starting to come along,” Sauser said.

     Dalton Hampson led the JV team finishing 24^th overall and beating his previous season best by more than 40 seconds.

     Sydney Ballou had a strong race for the girls’ JV, finishing eighth overall in 23:15.0, a time that would have been fourth best on the varsity team.

     Kehde Campbell set a PR by more than a minute.

     “Sydney stood out. She’s ready now to make that transition to varsity,” the coach said. “And Kehde Campbell has come so far in her two years in cross country.”

Conference meet next

     Next up for the Panthers is the River Valley Conference Meet Thursday, Oct. 11 at the Kickers Soccer Complex in Iowa City.

     Ranked teams in the RVC for the boys include Tipton (first), Bellevue (fourth), Camanche (sixth), Monticello (eighth).

     For the girls, ranked teams on hand will include Mid-Prairie (second), Cascade (10^th), and Tipton (15^th). Monticello is listed among the “teams to watch.”

     Varsity and JV teams will run together.

     Race times are 4:30 p.m. for all middle school runners, 5 p.m. for high school girls, and 5:30 p.m. for high school boys.

Oct. 4

Central DeWitt Inv.

(at Grace Lutheran

Camp)

VARSITY GIRLS TEAM SCORES

     1, Bettendorf 41; 2, Davenport Assumption 78; 3, Muscatine 123; 4, Mount Vernon/Lisbon 131; 5, Central DeWitt 138; 6, Davenport Central 160; 7, Davenport West 171; 8, Monticello 180; 9, Wilton 230; 10, West Delaware 278; 11, Camanche 286; 12, Maquoketa 321; 13, Davenport North 322.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     10, Karle Kramer, 21:11.9; 18, Lydia Recker, 21:41.0; 29, Emily Schlarmann, 22:22.8; 67, Gabby Guilford, 24:27.5; 73, Dru Kramer, 24:53.8; 79, Triniti Etzel, 25:47.5.

VARSITY BOYS TEAM SCORES

     1, Bettendorf 61; 2, Calamus-Wheatland 106; 3, Mount Vernon/Lisbon 109; 4, Davenport West 131; 5, Muscatine 134; 6, Camanche 157; 7, Monticello 178; 8. Wilton 235; 9, Davenport Assumption 254; 10, Central DeWitt 284; 11, Clinton Prince of Peace 284; 12, West Delaware 308; 13, Davenport North 308; 14, Northeast 309; 15, Maquoketa 377.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     21, Cole Cruise, 17:51.3; 31, Daltyn Kramer, 18:17.3; 33, David Titman, 18:19.2; 41, Jasper Nietert, 18:36.8; 52, Austin Timm, 18:53.2; 58, Carter Kurt, 19:03.9; 71, Carter Cruise, 19:34.8.

JV GIRLS TEAM SCORES

     1, Bettendorf 20; 2, Davenport Assumption 82; 3, Davenport Central 87; 4, Mount Vernon/Lisbon 106; 5, Muscatine 155; 6, Central DeWitt 161; 7, Monticello 171; 8, West Delaware 181; 9, Davenport West 267.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     8, Sydney Ballou, 23:15.0; 49, Jaelyn Graver, 25:40.1; 56, Maddie Stadtmueller, 25:51.9; 65, Lizzie Petersen, 26:17.6; 85, Faith Hansen, 27:35.7; 122, Kehde Campbell, 30:18.8.

JV BOYS TEAM SCORES

     1, Muscatine 49; 2, Bettendorf 50; 3, Davenport Central 51; 4, Mount Vernon/Lisbon 89; 5, Monticello 167; 6, Central DeWitt 207; 7, Davenport West 217; 8, Northeast 236; 9, West Delaware 243; 10, Calamus-Wheatland 292; 11, Davenport North 307; 12, Camanche 307; 13, Davenport Assumption 332.

MONTICELLO RESULTS

     24, Dalton Hampson, 19:41.9; 27, Grant Hospodarsky, 19:46.9; 30, Gavin Baugh, 19:57.2; 40, Jayden Orcutt, 20:07.4; 61, Ethan Martensen, 20:46.8; 69, Levi Temple, 21:00.3; 137, Keagan Glawatz, 22:35.6; 142, Dominik Chally, 22:42.0; 147, Nathan Oswald, 22:53.1; 174, Erlin Bell, 24:09.1; 176, Noah Webber, 24:19.3; 198, Matthew Beal, 26:23.9; 202, Marcus Sunlin, 26:53.7.