Panther men’s cross country is the Mountain Seven Conference Champion.
On Oct. 17, the conference gathered at Jackson Park in Hendersonville to kick off the postseason and dole out bragging rights for the year. With a conference title on the boys side and a runners-up finish by the girls, Franklin will enter the 3A West Regional this weekend with a full head of steam.
“I feel like the girls had it harder to get that runner-up; they only beat Tuscola by one point,” said head coach Melissa Ward of her female runners. “That was pretty intense, and they have some really strong girls. [West Henderson] has a very fast girl, and obviously several more behind her, and same with the boys. They brought some of their stronger boys, and they gave our guys the competition they needed.”
With several of West’s top runners nursing injuries before the meet, Ward initially wasn’t sure which Falcons would show up. While West was able to win the girls’ conference title, promising freshman Morgan Cress led a strong effort from the Panthers.
“That was a pretty big surprise, and didn’t happen until the last two or three hundred meters,” said Ward of Cress’s fifth-place finish. “She was staying pretty steady with Abigail [Pope] the first mile, even two miles. I got to see them on their last half-mile or so, and she had already passed Mindi [Holbrooks]. She was creeping up on Amy [Mendoza Lopez] at that time, and there’s a solid downhill sweep and then a flat end. On that downhill sweep she just kept making her move, so she did it exactly how I’d want her to. … She almost caught up to the Tuscola girl in front of her, so it was pretty intense.”
After consistently placing among Franklin’s top girls, Cress turned in her best time of the season, finishing fifth out of 71 runners with a time of 19:32.6. The freshman led a “pack” of three Panthers placing back-to-back-to-back, with Mendoza Lopez earning sixth in 19:51.8 and Holbrooks finishing seventh in 20:16.7.
Sophomore Abigail Pope just missed the top 10 for Franklin, placing 12th with a 20:37.1. Freshman Breanna Pendergrass finished 18th in 21:45.1.
As Franklin’s top five finishers, the underclassmen earned 46 points between them, barely edging out Tuscola (47) for second place behind West (32). Had Franklin and Tuscola tied, senior Rylee Cassada (24th, 22:44.6) and sophomore Briseida Tlahuice-Flores’ (28th, 23:11.4) scores would have been taken into account, and would have given Franklin the edge over Tuscola’s combined sixth and seventh scores (23rd, 37th).
On the boys side, Franklin dominated the top of the leaderboard, led once again by their senior dynamic duo.
“Barrett [Stork] also PR’ed in that race,” said Ward of Stork’s personal record. “He did beat Logan [Russo] in the race, so that was good for his morale. … We had five guys named All-Conference because it’s [given to the] top 12, so that sealed our deal.”
Placing second only to West’s Hudson Rice with a 15:47.7, Stork narrowly outpaced Russo’s fourth-place run of 15:56.8. Junior Matheson Post finished sixth out of 63 in 17:18.5.
After Post, two more juniors earned back-to-back top-12 finishes for Franklin, with Dane Hooper placing 10th with an 18:02.5 and Cooper Tyler placing 11th with an 18:09.3.
With each of their top five runners earning All-Mountain Seven honors, the Panther men ran away with the conference title, earning 30 points to far outpace second-place West’s 49. With nine runners in total being named to the All-Conference team, on Oct. 27 the team will travel to Morganton for the 3A West Regional meet.