Missing three weeks of practice is never easy on a team. It certainly hasn’t been easy on the Panther Cross Country team, who was only able to get in one week of solid training before the first meet. But it was a great week of training and the team is off to a great start.
This past Saturday the boys and girls teams competed at the St. Michael’s Bayou Boogie cross country meet at Highland Road Park. The boys team was led over the 3-mile course by senior Khidhr Al-Mustafa in a time of 19:57, followed 20 seconds later by fellow senior Brandon Williams.
Senior Darmar Galvan (21:42) and junior Saulomon John (22:10) were followed closely by sophomore Marshall Bayles and junior Joshua Stephens. The varsity squad finished behind the host team, but ahead of district rival Plaquemine and cross town rival Broadmoor.
Alexis Martin and Melissa Grant push toward the finish line at Highland Road Park on September 3, 2016.
The girls team was led by juniors Alexis Martin and first time racer Melissa Grant. The Lady Panthers put in solid efforts and covered the first mile of the course with the leaders before sliding to the middle of the pack late in the race.
Coach Wallace commented on the performance with both teams, “The plan for today’s races was to treat it like any other workout. Let’s just get out there and get a feel for the course and the race conditions”. He went on to say that, “We have missed a lot of workouts due to things beyond our control, but with school re-starting and the team getting back into a normal workout routine, we are going to improve quickly and will be very strong 12 weeks from now at the state championship meet. This team is like a car with no brakes, we are only going faster and faster”.
The cross country team will be in action Saturday, September 10 at the Episcopal Round Table Run at Highland Road Park. The girls varsity will run at 8:30 am, followed by the boys varsity at 9:15
