One of the best weather days in recent weeks greeted runners at Pine Knolls Country Club as Knoxville Cross Country hosted an Early Bird Invitational on Monday. The Knoxville Boys and PCM girls won the respective team trophies with the Panther boys taking the top three individual spots led by Isaac Rankin, the overall winner in 17:04 winning by a full minute over teammate Connor Schultz in 2nd and Bradley Hembrook in 3rd place. Rankin told KNIA/KRLS Sports he felt good getting up and down the hilly Pine Knolls Course.
Rankin: “I’m happy with how I got out and it’s just a fitness thing, you can’t get out that slow in more competitive meets, and of course being hilly it’s the most elevation changes we run on, but I’m happy with how things went.”
PCM took seven of the top ten finishing positions to run away with the girls title. Knoxville was 3rd overall led by Nicole Schultz in 8th place at 23:33. Knoxville heads to the Albia Invitational on Thursday.
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The class 4A #15 Knoxville Volleyball Squad swept the Carlisle Quad dropping only one set all night in beating the host Wildcats 21-12, 19-21, and 15-4, Oskaloosa 21-13 and 21-13 and Ottumwa 21-18 and 21-15. Siena Scott led the team in kills for the night with 16. Mariah Ripperger had 14 kills and Addi Williams and Jordyn Counts had ten, each. Addy Dunkin was a perfect 29/29 serving with four aces and had 48 assists while Abbie Keitges had 29 digs and went 36/36 serving with four aces while Brynlee Brooks was perfect in 23 serve attempts with three aces. In all the Panthers missed just two serves in 138 attempts with 18 total aces. Knoxville begins the season 3-0 and plays at the Skip Anderson Classic at Bondurant-Farrar on Saturday.
The Knoxville Girls Tennis Squad suffered an 8-1 loss to Grinnell on Monday. The Panthers were playing short three players who were at the volleyball quad. The lone win of the day was at #1 doubles where Bridgette Liston and Brylee Wooley took the victory. The Panthers will host Clarke today at the Joel Tonda Tennis Courts.