Iola High’s varsity boys cross country team won the Pioneer League meet Thursday night at Allen Community College.
The Mustangs dominated, placing five runners in the top eight spots. Iola’s team score of 24 points was 37 points better than the meet’s second-place team, Anderson County.
“It is easy to fall in the trap of, ‘Hey guys, if we just do our thing and take care of business, we should win this,” coach Marv Smith said. “Our mindset was ‘If we are going to win this, somebody has to have a hero’s race.’”
Senior Colby Works told fellow senior Braden Plumlee to have that “hero race” that Smith mentioned.
And Plumlee delivered. The Mustangs’ top runner finished in second place with a time of 17:43.
Plumlee ran the same course a little more than three weeks ago during the Doc Stiles Invitational and finished with a time of 18:37.
In fact, every varsity boys runner improved upon his Doc Stiles’ time by at least 52 seconds.
“We had a great team race,” Smith added. “We were favored, but Anderson County was a threat if we faltered. We didn’t. We had all five runners in front of Anderson County’s No. 1 runner.”
Although Iola’s varsity girls team did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score, the Fillies showed off their individual talent.
Megan Klubek finished the race in fourth place with a time of 22:00. Abigail Taylor wasn’t far behind, finishing in sixth with a 22:38.
Taylor, a senior, now has four All-League honors under her belt after Thursday’s meet.
“I am so happy for Abigail since it is four All-League performances for her,” Smith said. “Nice way to end up your senior year.”
See all of Iola’s results, including the middle-schoolers, on B8.
Iola varsity boys win Pioneer League
