After having an exceptional track season, we all figured Ian had a great shot of making the top 7 this fall. With veteran Tanner Lees and incoming star freshman Jonathan Wells out of the lineup, it was an easy choice to move him up to varsity. While many runners were losing shoes in the mud pit, Ian had some big "Panther" shoes to fill, and did so with an impressive performance. His 18th place finish landed him as our 3rd runner; his time of 19:18.6 was only 5 seconds shy of 15th place of 173 runners and was a minute and a half faster than last year (while this year the mud was thicker and the heat was cranked up more)! If Ian continues to progress, he should be 'in the running' for some level of All-League honors come the end of the 2017 season!
Those were the words coming out of Chloe Johnson's mouth with just over a half mile to go as she had found herself in the lead in her first Cross Country Race (not counting 'The Stride'). In 'The Stride', she had rabbits to guide her through the course, so she was now in new territory, being in the lead and obviously without having the course memorized! Chloe came out of the mud pit in 4th place, about what place she had been on the team in workouts. Being the competitor she is, she found that extra will to win in the middle of the race and beat the other 159 girls in the 3K Middle School race. Afterward, she asked if she could run the 5K High School race as well. She will have to wait 2 years for that - and we will make sure she has that course memorized by then!