The the meet is divided into three classes and is one of the largest meets in the state.
The relatively flat course is known for fast times and both the boys and girls squads experienced that effect despite a rather hot and humid day.
For the boys, Braeden Punke led the EP runners with a 52nd place finish in 16:24 over the 3 mile Detweiler Course. Senior, Nathan Punke was 45 seconds back finishing 119th. Freshman, Ethan Brown continued to impress with time of 17:51 placing 193rd. The final two counters for EP were just 14 seconds apart with Elijah Franzen clocking a 18:22 (250) and the third Punke brother, Logan, in 18:36 (272). Elijah Foster (18:49) and Chase Yount (19:03)completed the Panther top 7.
The boys placed 27th (735) in a field of 45 teams. Clinton won the meet with 192 just ahead of East Dubuque with 197. 777 runners completed the race.
Guys had a pretty good day with 6 of the 18 boys PR’ing despite the heat at race time,” said coach Tom Green. “We had a handful of teams we plan to beat at the end of the season finish in front of us today, but we feel like we made some strides in the right direction.”
“Braedon Punke led our varsity boys once again and took another 20 seconds off his PR. Elijah Franzen continues to move his way up the depth chart, finishing as our #4 today after a major injury during last year’s wrestling season set him back. He had a fantastic week of practice and made a huge leap forward today. We’ve been working on cutting the gap between our number 3 and 4 runners and Elijah responded to that challenge in a big way. Also for the first time we had 3 of our scorers (top five runners) all from the same house as the Punke brothers went 1, 2, 5. We saw a lot of position jockeying within our team, which is pretty much what we expect to see in a group this close-knit.”
The Lady Panthers were led, for the second straight race by senior, Jessie DeNeve placing 132nd in 21:27. The next four counters for the Panthers crossed the line just 32 seconds apart. Faith Baar 22:11, Leena Hanrahan 22:38, Sarah Link 22:42, and Avery Heaton 22:43. Roz Mosher placed 6th for EP (24:16) and Taylor Robshaw was 7th ( 26:38}.
The Lady Panthers finished 29th as a team among the 53 teams running with 513 athletes.
Coach Liz Green saw great improvement from several of her runner. “The ladies were led again by senior, Jessie DeNeve who ran about 30 seconds faster then her previous race. Coming in number two was Faith Baar who has really been impressive this season with her improvements running a personal career best. Next in was freshman, Leena Hanrahan also with a person best, bettering her last 3 mile race by 3 minutes. Sarah link and Avery Heaton finished 4th and 5th with Heaton setting a PR.
The team ran without Jennica Norman due to illness.
The squads will compete in the Dale Donner Invite next Saturday hosted by Bureau Valley at their course in Walnut.
