It’s been a busy week for Panther track and field.
On the week of April 17, Franklin had two big meets on the schedule – the Navy-Gold Challenge hosted by T.C. Roberson and the Blue Ridge Classic at North Buncombe. Less than a week away from the Mountain Seven Conference Championships May 2, Franklin cemented their status as one of the state’s top 3A teams.
“[The] boys team finished first overall and the girls finished third out of 12 teams,” said men’s head coach Matt Harlfinger in a public Facebook post following the Navy-Gold Challenge April 18. “We didn’t travel our whole roster and limited some of our kids to fewer events. We are in a stretch where we are doing four track meets in 14 days and really trying to load-manage to some degree. Despite that ... Elijah Cochran broke the school record in the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles.”
In helping his team finish first out of 13 men’s squads, junior Elijah Cochran continued his stellar outdoor season, breaking all-time FHS records in both the 110-meter (15.54 seconds) and 300-meter (39.39) hurdles. In addition to Cochran, several other Panthers came close to breaking school records, including senior Isaiah Roots in the 400-meter dash (2nd all-time, 50.12) and senior Blake Cassada in the pole vault (4th all-time, 14’4”).
After finishing among the top teams at the Navy-Gold Challenge, on April 21 the team traveled to North Buncombe for the Blue Ridge Classic. There, Cochran improved on his school-record results from earlier in the week, shaving one hundredth of a second off his time in the 110 hurdles (15.53) and five hundredths of a second off his time in the 300 hurdles (39.34). As a team, the Panther men finished second out of 21 squads to 4A power Mallard Creek, while the Panther women placed fourth out of 17.
With several performances ranking among the top 3A results this year statewide, the Panther men ended the Navy-Gold Challenge as one of the classification’s top three teams. In the pole vault, Cassada was ranked No. 1 in the state, while Cochran and senior Cal Drake were ranked No. 2 in the 300 hurdles and high jump, respectively. In the shot put, senior Seth Brewer was ranked No. 3, while Roots (800-meter dash), Logan Russo (800-meter dash), Adam Rogers (pole vault) and Aaron Jennings (pole vault) each ranked among the top six.