Cross country runs first-ever race in new stadium

Franklin High School's new stadium has seen its first cross country meet. After months of summer work, on Aug. 18 Franklin hosted their last preseason race with Smoky Mountain, Enka and Tuscola in a short two-mile event. Seven years after the old track was deemed unsafe for competition, Panther distance runners made a fitting return. "The offseason went pretty well for quite a few of the kids; they did what they should have been doing," said head coach Melissa Ward. "We've got a few people that are a little behind on training, but we're trying to piece that together slowly so we don't have any injuries, and that's pretty typical. Sometimes it's just hard – it is the offseason." In a sport that requires athletes to run several miles at a clip, often at their own pace and far from Ward's watchful eye, summer workouts can look different for each person. With a large group however, the Panthers should have plenty of talent. "It's pretty cool, and [track and field head coach Matt Harlfinger] was able to pick up a few more people that should be coming out from the freshman orientation this week," said Ward of Franklin's roughly 15 female runners. "We've got quite a few upcoming freshmen, so that definitely helps. … We've had an abundance come out, which is great because we're down to two seniors on the team on the girls' side, so that's a good place to be to not lose people for next year. We will lose Morgan [Cress] as obviously one of our frontrunners there, but I think we're going to have a whole pack coming up pretty successfully." With a time of 11:58, Cress showed why she's a three-time state meet finisher, beating the second-place time by nearly a minute. Sophomore Bre Dezarn finished third overall (13:46), followed by Abby Timan (7th, 13:59), Lana Walker (9th, 14:48) and Bre Pendergrass (10th, 14:54). On the boys' side, multiple veterans also return for Franklin. "Right now we do have quite a few," said Ward. "Five ran at the meet – well really six, but one dropped out mid-race. We're missing a few from that night and we should add in a few more when school starts, so we'll have a full team. Our goal is to try to qualify a team to get to state of course, but we'll see how it shapes out." In a field of 28 runners, a small Panther team punched above their weight, led by a fourth-place finish from Anthony Martinez (11:07). Evan Pyles (11:15) and Jase Rogers (11:30) finished back to back in sixth and seventh, followed by Conner Ramey (14th, 12:47) and Aaron Call (16th, 13:10). While the race was meant only as an entrée for their normal five-kilometer (~3.1-mile) meets, both teams were happy to finally have a track of their own. "It might not have been our best times, but it's a great benchmark run and went pretty well," said Ward. "I feel like the team really had good camaraderie with each other and with the public, being that we did a community race as well. I felt like they did a good job cheering on each other and everybody else and working together as a team for warm-up and cool-down and all that." "I think it feels a lot better too, since it's put together properly," she continued. "The middle school track I believe is rubber over concrete, and it just feels kind of heavy. … The kids always say there are some tracks that feel long and some that feel short, even though they're the same. I do think that ours feels like it's kind of speedy." Will Woolever can be reached at sports@thefranklinpress.com

Cross country runs first-ever race in new stadium

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