The Mustangs and Fillies found themselves on top of the leaderboard once again on Thursday as the Iola varsity boys and girls and junior varsity girls all finished first at Central Heights.
For the varsity girls it was Elka Billings who led the way as she finished third with a time of 21:13. Rachel Bycroft (22:02) and Kelsey Morrison (22:41) were the other two Fillie runners who finished in the top as they placed seventh and 10th respectively.
Madisyn Holloway was the last medalist for Iola, as she finished 15th with a time of 23:22. Lorie Carpenter 21st and Audrey Coltrane 24th just barely missed out on a top-20 finish and Olivia Taylor finished out the team at 27th.
The girls finished first with 43 points while second place Lyndon had 69 points and third place West Franklin had 77.
Meanwhile for the varsity boys, a slow start did not cost them gold as the Mustangs top five runners each finished within a minute of each other.
“Our success with the boys has not come from an individual, but with our cluster running as a pack,” head coach Marv Smith said. “ Each individual’s success has been magnified in the team outcome.”
Jack Adams was the top Mustangs finishing fourth with a time of 18:14 while Cole Regehr just four seconds behind, finishing fifth with a time of 18:18.
Nathan Louk and Elijah Fawson were also right there, finishing ninth and 10th with a times of 18:32 and 18:40 and Bret Plumlee closed out the Iola medalists, finishing 13th with a time of 19:11.
The varsity boys had 41 points in their first-place finish while Central Heights finished second with 58 points.
For the junior varsity, Marta Gonzalez finished second with at time of 24:57 while Nora Gostner finished third with a time of 25:16.
Kylee Maloney finished sixth with a time of 26:09 and Ella Taylor finished 10th with a time of 27:20 to close out the medalist. Kaylin Klubek finished 17th with a time of 33:24 after losing a shoe.
Iola was the only team on the girl’s side to have at least five runners to qualify for a team score.
The junior varsity boys are still hampered with injury as two of their top runners either couldn’t run or weren’t 100 percent in the race.
Nathan Sprague finished first with a time of 20:34 while Blake Haar finished third with a time of 20:46. Tavon Bass, who’s struggling with a hip problem, finished seventh with a time of 21:20 to round out the Mustang medalists.
The high school will compete in their final regular season meet on Thursday at Independence.
