Panther track and field is continuing its quest for a 3A title.
As one of the top teams statewide in number of qualifiers for the state meet, on Dec. 16 the team traveled to Columbus for the Polk County Reindeer Games. With two new school records, two more state qualifications and several new personal records, the team ended the first half of their season on a high note.
“We kind of went into this one and told the kids just to have some fun with it,” said head coach Matt Harlfinger. “Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting any qualifiers out of it because it was a Christmas-themed track meet, and they encourage the kids to dress up in Santa hats and all that stuff. I said, ‘Let’s go have fun for this one,’ because we’ve done such a good job to date in hitting qualifers. We put so much pressure on them sometimes, more inadvertently than on purpose, but we told them this time there’s no expectations here.”
Already with 34 qualifications, the most in 3A as of the end of their last meet Dec. 9, Panther coaches used Saturday’s meet as a celebratory end to a stellar first month. Despite the team’s laid-back approach however, few athletes seemed to skip a beat.
“Laura Covarrubias broke the indoor school record in the long jump, and Elijah Cochran broke the school record in the 55-meter dash,” said Harlfinger. “[Cochran] almost qualifed for the state meet there, which is such a hard time to hit for that particular event. He missed it by .01 [seconds]. We also had Mindi Holbrooks qualify in the girls [1,000-meter run], which was really good.”
With a 6.55-second dash and a 17’5.5” leap, both Cochran and Covarrubias broke their own school records from last year. In addition to Holbrooks’ 1,000-meter run (3:17.65), Cochran also qualified in the 55-meter hurdles (7.98), leading a strong day from several Panther athletes.
“Adam Rogers set a personal best in the pole vault with a 13’7”, and he’s leading 3A right now,” said Harlfinger. “Brady Norman set a big personal record in the shot put at 32’10”, and as a freshman he’s doing a really good job. Laura Covarrubias had a PR in the 55-meter dash, and so did Michelle Ortega at 7:49 and 7:59, respectively. In the girls [500-meter dash], Bailey Callahan and Anna Timan both set personal records as freshmen. ... Boston Stringer won the pole vault, so overall it was a good showing.”
With strong performances up and down the roster, Franklin ended their last meet before Christmas with a bang. In a fairly large meet with some of WNC’s best competition, the Panthers’ overall results bode well for their championship hopes.
“In the women’s team scores, we scored 212 points, and second place got 57,” said Harlfinger. “So, we just about broke the scoreboard on that one, and then on the boys side [Franklin won] 160-103. There were 14 teams competing and it was a little chilly and overcast, so it was a good showing. I’m pretty proud of what they were able to do.”
While they now have more than two weeks to prepare for their next meet Jan. 6, the team has no plans to take Christmas break off. With less than two months remaining before the state meet Feb. 10, slacking over the holidays can set athletes back for the rest of the season.
“We’re going to head to Liberty University on Jan. 6, which will be a bigger and more competitive track meet than our state meet,” said Harlfinger. “Unless your kids need a little bit of rest and recovery, taking days off leading into that is probably not going to be beneficial. We really want to have a good showing at Liberty; that’s kind of gonna be our benchmark to compare last year to htis year. It’s such a fast track, and some of the fastest kids in the country are there. ... I think this year there’s gonna be about 2,000 kids there.”