What is billed as the largest high school cross country race in Illinois with over 5,000 runners competing, the First To The Finish meet at Detweiler Park in Peoria on Saturday, is the perfect place to measure a team’s potential among the top teams in the state. For the Panther boys’ team the meet proved what coaches Tom and Liz Green had envisioned, a team that will not just qualify for the state finals, but will push for a top five finish.
Due to a change in the meet schedule a few weeks ago, the 1A races were moved up one hour with an 8:00AM start. That meant a 5 AM leave time for the Panthers. The early departure didn’t seem to bother the athletes as they had an outstanding day.
The Panther boys came away with a 9th place finish in a field of 46 teams. Seven of the top 10 ranked teams competed on the state finals course with EP scoring 294 points just 4 points out of 7th place.
“All the pieces clicked,” said coach Tom Green of the team’s finish. We had quite the celebration at the end of the day.”
Senior Charlie Link broke the 16:00 barrier for the first time in his career on the speedy Detweiler course placing 21st in 15:44. Lucas Dreisbach placed 49th with a PR time of 16:31 and was followed closely by Tyson Skinner taking 67th in 16:52.. Skinner’s time was 1:16 faster than his previous best.
“We had three guys under 17 minutes and our goal is to get 5,” added Green.
Sophomore Gus Schultz, in first year in the sport, shined in the major event clocking a 17:11 for 87th place just ahead of senior, Jacob Gibson in 90th position in the field of 550 runners crossing in 17:15 to complete the EP scoring. Junior, Wyatt Goossens (110th 17:32.) and Zane Romero (129th 17:45) also finished in the Panther top 7.
In the girl’s race Panther freshman Sarah Link got her first taste of the state finals course placing 80th in field of 440, to lead the Panthers in 20:45. “She is still learning how to run at this level,” said Coach Liz Green. “She doesn’t run like freshmen. She has great mile splits and is showing she is a great closer with her last mile being the fastest. She has more in the tank and she is making Jillian (Norman) better too.” Senior, Norman crossed the line about 30 seconds behind Link in 100th place in 21:16.
The Lady Panthers placed 19th as a team in a field of 38 with 910 points.
Another freshman, Jessie DeNeve trailed Norman by the same 30 second margin finishing in 21:46 for 125th. The final two scoring runners for EP were Chloe Slock 22:09 146th and Clara Ashdown 180th 22:57. The top seven runners for EP also included Brooke Lalley (260th 24:57 )Taylor Robshaw (277th. 25:31)
“They are starting to sniff a chance to qualify for state like the boys,” added Tom Green. “Several of the girls have a lot of untapped potential.
The Panthers will take part in the Bureau Valley Invitational next Saturday in Walnut.
