Panther track and field looks right at home versus top competition.
On Dec. 13, they traveled to Winston-Salem for one of the state’s biggest indoor meets, the Stay In Your Lane Invitational. There Franklin continued their quest for a 5A title.
“That indoor facility is great. It’s a banked track now, so it makes for really fast performances, and it gets really loud in there, too,” said head coach Matt Harlfinger of the JDL Fast Track, which has hosted the state’s winter championships for more than a decade. “I always tell the kids that have never been there, ‘It’s kind of going to be like a Duke-Carolina basketball game atmosphere – it gets loud. They shoot the gun and the crowd goes crazy, and that’ll amp you up. ... The fact that we were able to get some individual champions was huge. Some of the fastest kids in the country were there, never mind the fastest kids in North Carolina, and some of the fastest times in the country were run.”
Featuring opponents from across the Eastern Seaboard, the meet gave Franklin a golden opportunity to test their skills versus top competition. From the very first events, the Panthers hit the ground running.
“Our girls [4x800-meter relay] team started the meet off for us – that’s the first running event – and I think they broke the school record by 13 seconds,” said Harlfinger of Amy Mendoza Lopez, Abigail Pope, Mindi Holbrooks and Morgan Cress. “This is a group that set the school record, but it was two years ago. They ran a 10:14 two years ago, and last year they just couldn’t do it for whatever reason. ... Every single one of them ran a personal best, and they were just glowing when they got done. ... We took first place overall in the four-by-eight, which, this was a very big track meet.”
After setting a Panther record as sophomores and freshmen, the foursome faced a long road to return to their previous form, helped by personalized training from distance coach Melissa Ward. In addition to the 4x8, they also impressed elsewhere on the track.
“Our other individual champion was Morgan Cress. She took first place in the two-mile, which was great for her,” said Harlfinger. “Amy Mendoza Lopez finished second overall in the thousand [meter run], and she shattered the school record. ... I don’t remember exactly when the record was set, but it was a Dylan Garcia record. It had to have been 2020 I guess, so it’s been around for at least five years, and she was in her own right probably the best distance runner in Franklin history. Well, Amy broke that school record by eight seconds. She ran a 3:04, and she’s currently ranked number one in 5A by about six seconds.”
Led by Mendoza Lopez and Cress, Franklin’s female distance runners turned in an incredible day. In the sprint events, another Panther girl set a school record.
“We had a third school record fall in the girls 300 meter; Michelle Ortega ran a 40.64,” said Harlfinger. “She broke our school record that was set last year by Laura Covarrubias, and she broke that by almost a second – I couldn’t believe how fast she ran. I know that she’s fast, but coming into it I think her personal best was about two seconds slower than that, and so she just ran one heck of a race, and posted one of the fastest times in the state right now. A lot of times we’re excited if we can get boys to run that fast, and Michelle is pretty on-par with some of the boys at this point.”
Between sprint, middle-distance and long-distance events, Franklin’s girls have the talent to compete for a state title. On the boys side, a trio of Panthers are also near the top in the 5A rankings.
“We had a really good effort by Reid Laseter in the in the 300; he posted the second-fastest time in school history behind Elijah Cochran,” said Harlfinger. “He ran a 35.2, and once they update the rankings I’m pretty sure he’s going to be ranked number one for the 5A classification in the 300. ... Reid is ranked number one in the 300 and 500, Ken Modlin is ranked number two in the 300 and 500, and C.J. Engert is going to be ranked number one in the high jump. In a lot of areas we’re going to be ranked top-three, top-four there on the boys side and on the girls side, so it feels like we’re going to have a realistic opportunity to compete for a state championship.”