The time is now for Panther cross country.
For the past few years, Franklin’s distance runners have steadily improved, with both men’s and women’s teams competing in the 3A State Championship last fall. With a veteran men’s team hitting their stride and a young but talented group of women, head coach Melissa Ward says runners have been hard at work preparing for the season.
“We’re looking pretty decent. We’ve had quite a few that did work out throughout the summer, which makes all the difference [because] you have your base already,” she said. “We’ve had quite a few kids doing the weightlifting through the summer, so that really helps, too, because they have the strength and the injury prevention already in place, and it’s not so bad starting out. We’ve had a few kids that haven’t ran and they’re like, ‘Oh, cross country’s started,’ and so they come out and we’re starting from zero, but the majority are pretty much in good shape.”
For State Championship hopefuls, summer is a crucial time, as runners must start building their endurance several months before they can reach midseason form. With athletes still in varying states of fitness, Ward has adjusted the team’s workouts accordingly.
“I’ve got it pretty much where they’re in their own little groups,” she said. “The girls that are more conditioned are in a group, I’ve got my higher-end boys in a group, and then my kind of in-between boys in a group, so it’s individualized in that way. Sometimes I have to tailor something very specific to somebody depending on how they’re performing.”
With their first meet scheduled at Rabun Gap Aug. 31, the team is now in the final stages of preparing for the season. While both teams have the talent to return to the state meet Nov. 4 in Kernersville, Ward says she’s still looking for a few more boys to fill out the roster.
“We seem to have a large girls team – we’re probably around 15 or 16 girls,” she said. “On the guys side we’re right at seven, which is a team, but there’s no room for error. We also have kind of older kids, whereas the girls are all freshmen and sophomores basically, so we need that bottom level – we need that developing age. We’re still trying to recruit a little bit so that we can look to the future, not just what’s happening this year.”
Because each team’s top seven runners are considered for scoring in meets, a single injury could spell disaster for the Panther men. To that end, Ward said men’s track and field head coach Matt Harlfinger has made a list of possible recruits from athletes that have attended workouts in other sports. With Logan Russo and Barrett Stork – who finished 17th and 24th, respectively in Kernersville last fall – now entering their senior years, the program is looking to ensure that they’ll have a full roster behind them.
“The whole team made a little infographic to share on social media from them trying to recruit,” said Ward. “It’s hard because school’s not in yet so not everybody’s thinking about sports that haven’t done it before, whereas our regular kids and kids that like football and volleyball have been working out all summer and know what’s going on. If you haven’t done a sport you might not realize that sports have already started, so I do feel like when school’s in we might be able to reel some more in – we’ll have to see.”
As one of Franklin’s most individualized and physically demanding sports, recruiting can sometimes be a challenge for Panther cross country. In running several kilometers a day from now until November, Ward says it takes a special kind of person.
“Cross country is probably one of the hardest sports because it’s all about endurance, and it’s such a lonely sport,” she said. “You have a team and you might run together, but when you’re in a race it’s not something where you’re high-fiving in between plays. ... I do feel like you have to be a certain individual to do it – it’s not for everybody.”