Panther track and field are Mountain Seven Conference Champions.
On Wednesday, April 30, the team traveled to North Henderson to kick off their postseason with the M7 title meet. With first-place finishes from both their men’s and women’s teams, Franklin gained momentum for the 3A West Regional at North Iredell May 10.
“The girls ran away with it, which, we kind of saw that one coming – we’re just very talented,” said head coach Matt Harlfinger. “I told them, ‘If you guys show up and do exactly what you’re capable of doing, the girls could win by 100 points.’ We won by 99, so we failed – we let the team down.”
As one of the 3A West Region’s best teams, Franklin’s women claimed their third straight conference title, routing second-place Pisgah 245.5-146.5. On the men’s side, the Panthers had a taller hill to climb.
“On the boys’ side I felt like it was going to be very close going in, and it was kind of the same speech – as long as we just go and do what we’re capable of doing, we don’t need Superman to walk through the door,” said Harlfinger. “Last year we got to the conference meet on the boys’ side, and it was just mistake after mistake after mistake – we just didn’t perform very well. This year was the exact opposite – the boys showed up, and through the first maybe four events, really exceeded expectations. They set personal bests or season bests or just did something that they probably didn’t think that they could do, and that really set the table for the day.”
After ending a two-year title streak with a second-place finish last spring, Franklin’s boys returned to the M7 mountaintop, outscoring West Henderson 206.5-172. In addition to the team conference wins, the Panthers also took home some individual hardware.
“Laura Covarrubias was named the running event MVP for the Mountain Seven Conference,” said Harlfinger. “She won the 100-meter dash, the 100-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and finished second in the 200 to Anna Timan, which was really cool. In doing so she broke the school record in the 100 hurdles, 14.77 [seconds]. Hannah Angel had the school record – she ran 14.7 on a hand-time which got converted to 14.94 for her official time, so the official school record was 14.94, and Laura beat it by almost two tenths of a second.”
“And then Aubrey Haley was named the Field Event MVP, as she won the long jump, she won the pole vault, and she finished fourth in the high jump. Aubrey’s one who we just started teaching the pole vault probably six weeks ago, and now she’s a conference champion and she’s ranked fourth in the region, and I wish we would have been doing this for the last four years.”
Because human timers must react to the starting gun (and also tend to stop their watches slightly before athletes cross the finish line), .24 seconds are generally added to times recorded by hand, giving Covarrubias a .17-second edge over Angel. In addition to her and Aubrey Haley’s MVP days, several other Panthers impressed around the track.
“Anna Timan won the 200-meter dash – that’s the first time she’s been an individual champion in an event,” said Harlfinger. “Michelle Ortega, same story – she won the 400-meter dash, and that’s the first time she’s been an individual champion. Justus Bradford won the high jump, Charley Seagle won the shot put and the discus, and we finished first, second and third in the 100 [with Covarrubias, Timan and Ortega]. … Kai Pelletier is going to be a very good runner for us. She was on our [4x100-meter] and [4x200-meter] relay teams, and our four-by-two team finished first place in the conference with Anna Timan, Channing Raye, Kai Pelletier and Jenna Holden as our anchor leg.”
“And then on the boys’ side, David Rogers won the pole vault, Justin Rodriguez won the 200, and we finished first place in the boys [4x400-meter relay] with Reid Laseter, Ken Modlin, David Rogers and Jonas Phillips. Braydon Hervey won the shot put, and I think those were our only four champions on the boys’ side. … Braydon Hervey threw 51’9” in the shot put, which was a massive PR [personal record], and he’s really positioned himself well. He’s currently ranked third in the region and I think top-10 in the state in the shot put, and I don’t think anybody really saw that coming.”