Another conference meet is in the books for Panther cross country.
On Tuesday, Oct. 14, the team traveled to Jackson Park in Hendersonville for the Mountain Eight Championship meet. With seven top-20 finishes including four from the girls, Franklin made their last on-course preparations for the regional meet.
The girls took the starting line first at Jackson Park, navigating a difficult course with several steep hills. There Abigail Timan ran the Panthers’ race of the day, surprising fans as Franklin’s top finisher at 21:28.00. The freshman’s time was good for ninth place overall, just ahead of senior Amy Mendoza Lopez (10th, 21:33.50).
Junior Morgan Cress finished hot on Mendoza Lopez’s heels (13th, 21:58.20), followed closely by senior Mindi Holbrooks (17th, 22:21.90). Senior Abigail Pope placed 25th (23:43.70), before Lily Tux Xol (25:15.90) and Molly Radecki (26:00.40) finished 35th and 38th. Keiri Muñoz (52nd, 29:43.60), Kai Pelletier (57th, 30:57.20) and Cheyenne Plemmons (62nd, 33:40.30) rounded out the Panther scorecard.
Overall, excluding runners not representing full teams, the numerical values of Franklin’s top five finishes (9+10+13+17+23) added up to 72, good for third place just behind Brevard (70). As top-14 finishers in the conference, Timan, Mendoza Lopez and Cress earned All-Mountain Eight honors.
After the women’s race the conference’s men took the starting line, where sophomore Evan Pyles just missed the All-Conference list in 16th (18:50.10), followed closely by Jase Rogers (19:04.30) and Ken Modlin (19:10.70) in 19th and 20th.
After Modlin, another trio of Panthers finished in quick succession, including Conner Ramey (45th, 20:55.50), Malik Walker (50th, 22:01.40) and Aaron Call (51st, 22:02.20). A third trio of Panthers did the same to round out Franklin’s card, including Timothy Bishop (63rd, 24:26.55), Ivan Martinez (66th, 25:52.80) and Zeke Moffitt (70th, 26:43.70). As a team Franklin’s men scored 129 points, good for sixth place just behind East Henderson (123). After the race, Franklin’s seniors shared their thoughts on running their last conference meet.
“I’m low-key kind of sad, because time has flown by pretty quick over the past four years,” said Holbrooks.
“I think it’s weird how fast … it literally feels like I was just a freshman,” said Pope. “For me, it was like, ‘OK, I have one more meet left, I have one more meet left,’ and now it’s like, ‘I just finished conference my senior year – I have two more meets left in my entire high school.’ Reality still hasn’t hit; I don’t think it will even hit until hopefully after state. It’s just like, ‘Where has the time gone?’”
After the conference meet, Franklin turned their attention to the 5A West Regional, planning a trip to the Tryon International Equestrian Center Oct. 25. There they’ll try to advance to the State Championship Nov. 1 at the Ivey Redmon Sports Complex in Kernersville.
“I feel like today really helped me realize, that my time doesn’t really matter; my placement matters more, especially with how bad this course was,” said Mendoza Lopez. “I’m not too worried about PR’ing [setting a personal record]; I’m just worried about what place I get.”