Panther cross country is rounding into midseason form.
After getting an early look at the state championship course at the Friday Night Lights meet in Kernersville Sept. 8, this past weekend Melissa Ward’s team geared up for a meet much closer to home. At the site of the Cherokee mother town near Ela on Sept. 16, Franklin joined nearly a dozen other WNC schools at the Kituwah meet, where five Panthers earned top-10 finishes in their respective races.
“It was a nice, flat course, and beautiful, but obviously not a true cross-country course because cross country isn’t flat,” said Ward. “It was good for morale and to get them PR’s [personal records]. That way they feel like they’re actually improving, and it helps to not have such a hard course after two harder courses.”
After two straight races on difficult, hilly courses in Rabun Gap and Kernersville to start the season, Kituwah was a welcome change for Panther runners. The easy course was borne out in the race results, with senior Logan Russo placing second out of 66 with a lightning-fast 16:2022.
After a strong offseason, junior Matheson Post continued to cement his place among the team’s top runners, placing fifth with a 16:57.44. Still recovering from a tendonitis injury in his foot, senior Barrett Stork nevertheless earned a top-10 finish as well, placing eighth with a 17:07.05.
Much like Post, junior Cooper Tyler continued to build on a strong offseason, placing fourth on the team and 16th overall with an 18:12.09. Fellow junior Dane Hooper was not far behind Tyler, placing 22nd with an 18:46.76.
After Hooper, Franklin waited nearly three minutes for their next finisher, when sophomore Jonas Phillips placed 36th with a 21:28.01. In 38th and 41st, Daniel Pope (21:34.85) and David Rogers (21:39.68) were both hot on Phillips’ heels, while Adam Rogers rounded out the Panther contingent with a 24:07.12.
In the girls varsity race, sophomore Amy Mendoza Lopez continued to impress, placing third out of 64 with a 20:24.40. In 10th and 11th, the other two members of Franklin’s sophomore power trio placed back-to-back, with Mindi Holbrooks finishing in 21:30.34 and Abigail Pope finishing in 21:35.98.
After Pope, promising freshmen Morgan Cress and Breanna Pendergrass also finished back-to-back, with Cress placing 19th in 22:32.23 and Pendergrass placing 20th in 22:51.63. True to form, senior Rylee Cassada and sophomore Briseida Tlahuice-Flores placed back-to-back as well, finishing 24th in 24:06.80 and 25th in 24:11.47, respectively.
With three strong runners leading both Panther teams supported by a strong stable of underclassmen, Ward believes both teams can compete at state. While they can’t qualify for that meet until Regionals Oct. 28, Ward says events like Saturday’s go a long way in the team’s preparation.
“Matheson, I kind of expect him to do this, but he picked it up on this one pretty decently,” said Ward. “As far as the girls side, Breanna Pendergrass picked it up this time, too. She came in fifth on the team and she’s been kind of hanging back, so I felt like this race she really bought in. ... Briseida’s another one who picked it up, and Rylee’s still trying to hold her ground. I think that those girls could be in the mix for going to state, so we’ll have to see how things develop going forward.”