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TEAM STANDINGS

Class A

1. Ballard 68; 2. Pella 89; 3. Webster City 96; 4. Winterset 97; 5. Dallas Center-Grimes 98; 6. Boone 102; 7. Norwalk 181; 8. Perry 186; 9. Carlisle 229; 10. Saydel 309.

Class B

1. Humboldt 41; 2. North Polk 54; 3. Gilbert 57; 4. ADM Adel 83; 5. Clarke 172; 6. Creston 186; 7. Iowa Falls-Alden 209; 8. PCM Monroe 226; Nevada and Bondurant-Farrar NTS.

Class C

1. Panorama 34; 2. Nodaway Valley 54; 3. Eagle Grove 95; 4. Roland-Story 106; 5. Ogden 113; 6. South Hardin 146; 7. Clarion-Goldfield 238; CMB Baxter, Colfax-Mingo, I-35 Truro and West Central Valley NTS.

Class D

1. Earlham 36; 2. Grundy Center 62; 3. Prairie Valley 91; 4. BCLUW Conrad 104; 5. South Hamilton 147; 6. Madrid 148; 7. AGWSR Ackley 181; Martensdale-St. Marys, Lynnville-Sully Colo-NESCO and Orient-Macksburg NTS.

Individual Leaders

Class A-Jasmine Hansen (Dallas Center-Grimes) 15:41; Class B-Dawn Gildersleeve (North Polk) 15:34; Class C-Catherine Penning (South Hardin) 16:23; Class D-Emily Geneser (Earlham) 16:06.

Webster City Results (Class A)

10. Breanne Wagner 16:42; 18. Brenna Paukert 17:03; 20. Sarah Perin 17:05; 23. Mikaela Pruismann 17:15; 25. Alicia Long 17:23; 36. Morgan Moline 17:43; 39. Erin Hunt 17:48.

South Hamilton Results (Class D)

24. Cassie Vold 18:14; 25. Katie Boor 18:20; 30. Ellyn Houdeshell 18:57; 33. Alyson Fisher 19:02; 35. Emma Boor 19:07; 36. Ali Kuhfus 19:10; 50. Koryne Carlson 20:52.

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HUXLEY - Brenna Paukert was adamant - she was not pushing herself any harder than usual down the homestretch even though it was her own teammate that she was leaving in her dust.

All the Webster City freshman wanted to do was prove she's worthy of a varsity spot, and in doing so she helped the Lynx solidify a place among the top three in Class A on Monday at the Ballard Invitational cross country meet.

Paukert turned in the best performance of her young career and the Webster City scoring five all crossed the finish line in a 41-second span as the Lynx tallied 96 points to pick up the bronze in the 10-team field.

Seventh-ranked (Class 3A) Ballard showed off its dominance by winning the large class with 68 points, and 15th-ranked Pella settled into the runner-up slot with 89. Webster City held off fourth-place Winterset (97 points) and fifth-place Dallas Center-Grimes (98) by the slimmest of margins, while Boone was back in sixth with 102.

Grimacing all the way down the homestretch, Paukert sprinted past teammate Sarah Perin during the race's final 50 meters to place 18th in 17 minutes, 3 seconds. Perin had enough left in the tank at the end to finish 20th in 17:05.

But Paukert was nothing but smiles minutes after the race.

"I'm really happy. That felt really good," Paukert said of just her third prep race. "I really wasn't trying to (beat Perin at the end) because I'm just always going hard at the end."

Lynx senior Breanne Wagner set the pace and her teammates kept up relatively well. Wagner maintained a spot in the top 15 throughout the race and earned herself a medal when she stormed into the finishing chute in 16:42 to place 10th overall.

"I still want to get a lot better, but one of my goals for this meet was to medal, so that was good," Wagner said. "It's a challenge (at this meet) because you can't figure out where you're at until the last 150 meters, but that makes it more fun."

Wagner was the first to give her teammates hugs as they came across the finish line, and she says that Monday's performance was a huge step in the right direction.

"I think we're finally packing up and getting to the point where we can all run together and feed off each other during the race," she said. "So I think we did really well."

Mikaela Pruismann (17:15, 23rd) and Alicia Long (17:23, 25th) were the final two scoring runners for Webster City. The two non-scorers - Morgan Moline (17:43, 36th) and Erin Hunt (17:48, 39th) - both turned in quality races as well, according to Lynx head coach Tony Bussan.

"What really thrills me is that we had about a one-minute spread from one to seven, and when you start doing that then you've got an effective scoring team," he said. "Getting off the bus, I said to the girls, 'let's run a great team race,' and they did that. Every place mattered and every kid ran hard."

South Hamilton's scoring runners were gapped by 53 seconds during the Hawks' fifth-place showing in the Class D field.

Cassie Vold (18:14) and Katie Boor (18:20) settled into a comfortable pace right alongside one another throughout en route to 24th- and 25th-place finishes, respectively. They helped South Hamilton put up a team total of 147.

"I think we ran well," South Hamilton head coach Jim Klein said. "Having our top five 50 seconds apart is good. But you have to temper that a little bit too because we need to have a faster good, and I think we can. All of our girls are capable of running faster."

Alyson Fisher had been among the Hawks' leaders in their opening two meets, but illness forced her off her regular pace. She still gutted it out and finished 33rd in 19:02, three places behind Ellyn Houdeshell (18:57). Emma Boor (19:07) took 35th.

Other team champions included seventh-ranked (2A) Humboldt in Class B, seventh-ranked (1A) Panorama in Class C, and fourth-ranked (1A) Earlham in Class D.