Cape Central girls claim own meet, edge Jackson

There are a lot of runners who would like to have Kim Pancoast's "dead legs."

Pancoast took fourth place in the 37th annual, 15-team Cape Central Invitational cross country meet Saturday, leading her Lady Tiger teammates to first place.

But Pancoast was disappointed in her time of 17:57 on the 2.6-mile course, the same course that she finished in 17:38 last year, good for first place.

When asked if she was happy with her performance, she wrinkled her nose a bit and said, "Not really. My legs were just dead. I've just been over-training. But as a team we're doing good."

Indeed.

The Lady Tigers took first place with 68 points, followed by Jackson with 77.

"I think we did well, starting with the eighth grade all the way up to varsity," Central coach Mark Hahn said.

Jackson's girls were led by Nicole Fadler, who took eighth in 18:30. The top 20 individuals medaled in the varsity races. Central and Jackson each had four medalists in the girls varsity race.

The Lady Indians brought a couple freshmen up to run on the varsity team Saturday, including Rachel Lowes, who medaled at 19th overall in 19:27.

"We've had to work so hard to overcome our injuries," Jackson coach Andrea Talley said. "Those freshmen were so nervous. They thought they did bad, but they didn't."

Notre Dame, in its first year of cross country, had one varsity medalist, Sarah Unterreiner. She took 20th in 20:14.

"We were real proud of her," Notre Dame coach Bill Davis said. "We had to split some of the girls up. We let some of our freshmen who normally run with the varsity run the freshmen race."

Varsity boys

Southeast Missouri's schools didn't do as well in the boys varsity race.

Fox, from Arnold, Mo., took first with 68 points. Central was well off that pace in fifth with 124 points, while Class 2A Kelly finished in sixth with 133 and an injury-depleted Jackson team took ninth with 219.

Josh Minson from Jackson was the area's best finisher was Josh Minson who took 10th in 15:03.

Kelly's Adam Daughhetee took 13th in 15:07, that time six seconds off his pace last year. But Daughhetee's teammate, Ashley Hahn moved up 11 spots from his finish last year, taking 17th in 15:13.

Notre Dame's top runner, David Unterreiner, didn't participate because of what Davis called a "shin problem."

"Hopefully we can get him back before too long," David said.

Complete results can be found in Scoreboard on Page 4B.