CAPE CENTRAL TAKES BIG STRIKES AT OWN CROSS COUNTY MEET

Saturday was a banner day for Cape Central's cross country program.

Central's varsity girls took first, its varsity boys took second, its junior varsity boys took second and its eighth-grade girls took first at the Cape Central Invitational held at Cape County Park.

"I was very happy with the overall team performance even on down to the eighth grade," said Cape Central coach Mark Hahn.

Highlighting the day for Cape Central was junior Kim Pancoast who took first place among the girls by covering the 2.6-mile course in a time of 17:38 -- some 21 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher from Northwest.

"I felt really good today," said Pancoast. "It was probably my best race this year. I felt really strong. I ran my first mile really slow, but I started getting faster on the second mile and ran from there."

"She seemed comfortable and in total control," said Hahn.

Eight schools competed in the girls' team competition. Of the five girls who composed Central's team score of 50, four of them were medalists. Along with Pancoast, Rachel Sprigg took eighth in 18:27, Whitney Pingel took ninth in 18:29 and Magin Patrick took 10th in 18:39. Casey Brennan just missed the medalist cut, finishing 22nd in 19:40.

In the 10-team boys' varsity race, two Tigers finished second and third. Mark Stone took second in 14:25 and right on his tail was Justin Hawkins (14:26).

"Both of those guys worked together and pushed each other," said Hahn. "It's great to see the results of that teamwork."

Said Stone, "It was a good race for me. The last three weeks or so I've had some bad races so it was nice to have a good one today."

Gabe Austin (14th, 15:13) and Ross Tilghman (19th, 15:25) also medaled for Central, while Mike Gerber rounded out the team score with a 25th-place finish in 15:42.

Central finished just behind Northwest, which scored 55.

Farmington's Aaron Grimes separated himself from the pack and won the varsity boys race in 14:07.

Jackson coach Andrea Talley was pleased with the way her teams ran Saturday.

"Our kids did well considering everything," she said. "We had our No. 1 and No. 2 guys out on varsity so we had a lot of JV kids running varsity."

Jackson's boys took eighth with 215 points.

Jackson was also dealing with some illness on the girls' team, but the Lady Indians still finished third with 69 points behind the running of Krista Mouser (fifth, 18:21), Nicole Fadler (11th, 18:48), Carol Koenig (13th, 19:03) and Laura Unverferth (14th, 19:03).

"Overall we had a good day and I'm very encouraged," Talley said.

David Unterreiner led Notre Dame with a 17th place finish in 15:23, while Susan Judd (16th, 19:17) medaled for Notre Dame on the girls' side. Notre Dame's boys took ninth while the girls took seventh.

Standout junior Adam Daughhetee the 2A state champ in the mile led Kelly with a seventh-place finish in 14:59.

Daughhetee was one second off Kelly's Cape Invitational record.

Kelly took sixth in both the boys and girls varsity races.

"Almost all our kids cut times today," said Kelly coach Bill Davis. "Overall, we didn't do too bad."

Advance's boys team took 10th with 297 points, but it is a team comprised mostly of underclassmen. The underclassmen elected to run varsity to help prepare as a team for the end of the season.

Advance coach Kevin Pritchett was especially proud of his junior high boys team which finished in first place.

"We're a 1A school and to win against all those 4As is exciting," he said.