No team scores were officially kept but unofficially the Panther boys placed 7th in the 22 team field with 194 points. Two of the top ranked teams in Class A took the top two spots with Aurora Central Catholic squeaking past the East Dubuque Co-op 41-42.
The Panthers were led by Braeden Punke who finished 11th clocking a 17:46 over the rolling three-mile course. Older brother Nathan was just under a minute back taking 30th place. The surprise of the day came from freshman, Ethan Brown who finished just 11 seconds behind Punke to cross the line in 36th place. The other two scoring runners for EP were Elijah Foster (19:53) in 63rd and Elijah Franzen (19:57) in 64th position. The were followed closely by freshman, Logan Punke (21:02) 69th and Jackson Tegler (20:06) 72nd in a field of 158 runners.
The Lady Panthers also had a strong showing as they placed 6th (unofficially) totaling 159 points among 15 other squads. Winnebago won the meet with 41 points ahead of Riverdale with 96.
In a first for her, senior, Jessie DeNeve was the top finisher for the Panther varsity squad claiming 26th in a time of 22:38. The squad got a big boost as senior, Sarah Link returned to action placing 34th with a 23:23 in her first race of the season. She was followed closely by Roz Mosher (23:37) in 35th. Faith Baar was the fourth scorer for EP crossing the line in 24:17 to place 46th. Jennica Norman completed the Panther scoring with a 54th place finish in 25:04 edging out freshman, Avery Heaton with a time of 25:05 to take 55th place. Leena Hanrahan finished 74th in 26:25 to complete EP’s top seven.
EP Coach Liz Green said, “I have to shout out Sarah Link. Her health issues have been a concern the last few weeks but her doctor gave her the ok to run. She ran a smart race and listened well to her body and she powered through finishing second for the team. It was good to have her back. Faith Baar ran well again beating her time from last year even in the crazy heat. Avery (Heaton) kept Faith in her sights and pushed through. Leena has had a few hip issues so I was proud of her for hanging in there too.”
Coach Tom Green said, “We feel like they ran pretty well today despite the conditions. The heat was brutal and the Oregon course is actually a 5k rather than 3 miles so those two factors really affected our times. Despite the weather this past week, our kids still put in hard work when other teams cut way back. We felt that today for sure, but the extra work will hopefully pay dividends at the end of the season. We still feel like our teams stacked up really well against most of the schools we’ll be facing in regionals and sectionals at the end of next month, so of course we’re proud of them for that. The weather looks much better next week so we anticipate a ton of PR’s next week at Detweiler (Peoria).
The teams will travel to Peoria next Saturday to run on the IHSA State Finals course in Detweiler Park for the First To The Finish Invite
