The Southeast Valley cross country teams participated in the Panorama Invitational country meet at Panora on Thursday, September 17th, 2023. This meet has some of the best 1A, 2A and 3A teams in the state. The SV boys’ finished 11th overall in a team race that featured seven ranked teams in 1A and 2A including #1-1A ACGC and #1-2A Des Moines Christian as well as three very strong class 3A teams in Atlantic, Kuemper Catholic and Greene County. The SV girls’ finished 14th overall. This race also featured six class 1A and 2A ranked teams including #1-1A Madrid and #5-2A, defending state champions Van Meter as well as class 4A Urbandale.  

Oscar Hanson continues to pace all of the Jaguars with his 20th place finish on Thursday. He ran a season best time of 18:32 to claim his third medal in three times this season. Carter Ferry was the next Jaguar to cross the finish line running a career best of 20:41. Running season bests for the year were Ethan Tucker (20:47), Lincoln Akins (21:10) and Dreyvon Steadman (22:03) to make up the top five scorers for the Jaguars. Displacement runners Ben Thompson (22:13) and Kyeo Augustine (22:25) also finished the 5k course in season bests.

Also competing for Southeast Valley in the boys race were Owen Nuss (22:32), Grant Smith (23:17), Caden Kaltschnee (27:53 - season best) and Evan Kuhn (33:40).

In the girls race, senior Chloe Park ran a season best of 26:52 to lead the Jaguar pack. Teammates Katie Field (26:56), Brooke Peterson (27:11) and Autumn Jones-Popp (27:32) crossed the finish line in season best times as well as Hailey Rees (28:43) and Abbi Tucker (31:38). The final Jaguar to cross the finish line was Emma Gernhart (34:13).  

The Jaguars will compete next at Story City on Thursday, September 21st before having over a week off before heading to Pocahontas on Saturday, September 30th.