The reigning 3A Indoor Track State Champions are back in action.
At last year’s state title meet, Franklin nearly swept the entire competition, defying prognosticators to place first in men’s scoring and a close second in the women’s. At the Polar Bear #1 meet at Swain County High School Nov. 15, the Panthers opened the 2023-24 season in their first step toward a title defense.
“We walked out of there with a lot of event champions, which is great. But the purpose of the entire indoor season is to hit that qualifying mark so you can go compete at the state meet,” said Matt Harlfinger, now in his third year as Panther head coach. “We had 11 qualifiers and got all of our relays through, which was the goal for yesterday – I wanted to get our relays done and other with. It’s tough early in the year to hit an individual standard because we’re not in midseason form, but I felt like we had enough depth on our relays that we could push every single one of them through now.”
As the state’s 3A team to beat, Franklin entered their first meet with high expectations, starting strong by qualifying men’s and women’s teams in the 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800-meter relays. With just a few weeks of formal practice under their belts, some of Franklin’s other elite athletes also punched their tickets.
“We got three of our pole vaulters through – Boston Stringer, Aaron Jennings and Adam Rogers all hit their qualifying marks,” he said. “Hope Smith qualified in the [55-meter dash], which on both sides, boys and girls, the 55 standard is probably the hardest one to hit. I don’t want to say I didn’t believe in her, but I just didn’t see it coming at this particular meet this early in the year. … Laura Covarrubias hit her qualifying mark in the long jump, and she won the long jump. She actually [would have] won the boys long jump, too.”
With five Panthers qualifying individually to join all six track relay teams, Franklin already boasts a large state meet contingent just one meet into the season. In addition to punching several tickets to Winston-Salem, the team also broke a bevy of school records at the meet.
“Elijah Cochran broke his own school record in the 55, and he’s been running really well at practice,” said Harlfinger. “Our boys four-by-two broke a record that was set in 2014 by .01 seconds, and that was Elijah Cochran, Jason Mesa, Justin Rodriguez and Zachary Call. … In the boys four-by-four, Logan Russo, Barrett Stork, Matheson Post and Elijah Cochran broke the school record that we set last year at the state meet – they ran 3:31.65. … Hope Smith broke the school record in the 55, and then the girls four-by-eight was Mindi Holbrooks, Amy Mendoza Lopez, Abigail Pope and Morgan Cress. They broke the four-by-eight school record by 20 seconds, and that was a record that we set at the state meet last year.”
In several events, Franklin recorded times in their first meet that outpaced their own records from the end of last season, including a girls 4x200-meter relay that would have broken the school outdoor record (the team keeps separate records for the winter indoor and spring outdoor seasons). In addition to their trusty veterans, Franklin also got strong performances from several newcomers to the team.
“We were able to pick up a couple volleyball players coming out of volleyball season with Talley Kinsland and Ella Brinson, and I think they’re gonna help us,” Harlfinger said. “Talley actually high-jumped 4’10” yesterday, and I think she even surprised herself. She was taking jumps at [heights] that would have qualified for the state meet, and has only practiced the event twice. … Ella Brinson has kind of been doing all of the jumps, and I think she could turn out to be a very good long jumper and triple jumper. It feels like we’ve got the whole girls soccer team out there for indoor, so that’s been good.”
Between track and field lifers and other athletes staying fresh for their respective sports, the Panthers have amassed an enormous outdoor team, listing 40 girls and 28 boys on their roster the day of the meet. In a sport where anyone can compete at state as long as they meet the qualifying mark, Franklin’s status as a 3A power seems to have attracted plenty of new talent.
“We didn’t travel about 30 kids, and part of that was because we’ve got a really young bunch,” said Harlfinger. “We’ve got a big freshman class, which is awesome. We didn’t have that last year, so I’m excited to have a big group to develop so we can pass the torch along down the road. … We also have some newcomers, some upperclassmen that have no experience, and so for this meet it was really kind of a business trip for us. We wanted to go in and knock out some qualifiers with the kids that have some experience, and give that new group maybe two more weeks to develop.”
With a decorated group of veterans and dozens of newcomers waiting in the wings, Franklin seems to have the talent to contend at the state meet for years to come. After placing first in men’s scoring and second on the women’s side to 1A powerhouse Swain, the team’s best distance runners turned their attention to one of the premiere events in the Southeast.
“It’s just a two-mile race, and the big draw is that we just had the state cross country meet this past weekend and everybody’s in shape, so let’s get all the fastest kids in the Southeast on the track and make them race head-to-head to see how fast they really are,” said Harlfinger of the Dash for Doobie 3,200 in Pfafftown Nov. 18. “It’s something like 400 athletes or so from 11 different states, and they’re all converging into one location. Last year, the kids that ran at that race ran probably 20 seconds faster than they ran at the state meet – there were absurd times that came out of that meet. … We’re taking [Barrett Stork], Logan Russo, and all four girls that ran on that four-by-eight: Amy, Mindi, Abigail and Morgan.”