Mount Vernon High School

Saturday, October 7, Mt. Vernon returned to Prides Creek for the annual Pocket Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships. Looking to build upon their races from two weeks ago, the guys trained hard in preparation and stepped up to the line anxious to see how their work had paid off. On their way to placing 9th at PAC, every guy ran either a season or career best time! Gibson Southern took first as a team while Princeton (2nd), Tell City (3rd), Boonville (4th) and Pike Central (5th) rounded out the top 5. In chasing his teammate for the first half of the race, Junior Malachi Spainhoward took the lead for MV on the second half and never looked back. He finished 1st for MV and cut nearly 1 minute 40 seconds from his time on the same course 2 weeks ago and setting his career PR (21:50.5). The competitiveness of the MV runners helped Sophomore Mason Hagan bust out a new career PR also. He led MV for the first half of the race and chased hard the rest of the way cutting his time from two weeks ago by fifty seven seconds for a new career best of 22:18.3. Cutting a minute and 15 seconds from two weeks ago, Senior Mason Suits ran a new season best time of 22:46 on his way to running third for MVHS. Junior Brendan Hubbard jumped on the PR wagon as he cut over 30 seconds from his season's best time and over a minute 30 seconds from the same course just two weeks ago. He finished 4th for MV in a time of 23:37.5. Hitting his stride and building confidence along the way, Sophomore Ryan McCollum continues to set new "bests" for himself. He cut over a minute 15 seconds from the last attempt at this course and nearly 40 seconds from his previous best to set a new career PR at 24:15.2. We are incredibly proud of these guys and can't wait to see how well they race next weekend at the IHSAA Sectional. This race will be at Angel Mounds and the guys are scheduled to start at 10 am. Admission will be $7 per person and tickets have to be purchased online: https://public.eventlink.com/tickets?t=45156 MVJHS was well represented at the PAC Middle School race as 8th grader Marcus Riecken led the Bobcats with a 17th place finish, 6th grader Wyatt Hoehn was 42nd and fellow 6th grader Logan Greenwell was 10 spots behind in 52nd. Great job, boys! We are proud of you!