EP opened their schedule at the Rocket Invite hosted by Rock Falls at Centennial Park on Tuesday afternoon.
The Panther boys placed third in the twelve team invite with 128 points trailing East Dubuque with 31 and Rockford Christian 47. East Dubuque is ranked #1 in Class A in some Illinois Polls.
Braeden Punke, a junior, led the Panther harriers with a top ten finish placing 9th in 16:46 in a field of 104 runners. His brother Nathan clocked a 17:09, good for 17th place. Freshman, Ethan Brown had an outstanding high school debut placing 22nd in a time of 17:24. The other two EP scorers were Elijah Foster in 41st (18:31), and Jackson Tegeler taking 47th (18:44). The third Punke brother, freshmen Logan hit the chute in 48th in (18:46) followed by Elijah Franzen taking 57th (19:13).
The Lady Panthers took fourth scoring 79 points. Genoa-Kingston claimed the title with 40 points ahead of Cambridge (70) and Oregon (86) among eight teams.
Junior, Jennica Norman edged out Roz Mosher to claim the top finish for EP. Norman placed 19th overall in 21:47 with Mosher grabbing 21st in 21:49. Senior, Jessie DeNeve was 23rd (22:03) followed by junior, Faith Baar in 27th (22:41), just ahead of freshman, Avery Heaton crossing the line in 28th (22:44). Another freshman, Leena Hanrahan was 37th and senior, Taylor Robshaw finished 59th to complete the top seven.
EP ran without Sarah Link, one of their top runners, who was out with injury.
Steven Swatos placed 10th in the Boys Open Race for the top finish among the Panther runners.
Coach Liz Green was pleased with her team’s results. “They ran really well as well. Sarah (Link) is out with some health issues, but the other ladies stepped up. Jennica Norman was the top girl for us after a really good summer of work. She was 45 seconds faster than her time at the meet last year. Jessie (DeNeve) ran a great race, and Roz (Mosher) was right there as well. Avery (Heaton) really slotted right into the top 5 as a freshman. Faith (Baar) was a huge improvement by knocking off almost 2:30 from last year’s time at this same meet. “Avery, Leena (Hanrahan) and Lilly (Skinner) all performed well especially for their first race and adding another mile (2 miles in middle school). Excited for them!
“We were pleased with our :55 1-5 spread but know we can do better with our pace management. That’s what we’re going to be focusing on in practice in anticipation of our next meet.”
The guys ran really well and were happy with their efforts,” said coach Tom Green. “Braedon Punke actually beat Devin Johnson’s all-time best record (Panther) for that course. Ethan (Brown) did an amazing especially for a freshman. The most consistent splits on the team was another freshman, Logan Punke. We learned a lot about what we can do to get better and focus on in practice. Great first meet!”
