Siloam Springs is ready to go for its annual home cross country meet.
The Panthers and Lady Panthers will host the Panther Cross Country Classic on Saturday morning on the grounds of Simmons Foods, and both varsity teams should be well rested heading into the meet as they did not run in a race this past weekend.
"We are ready to run and excited about being at home this week," said Siloam Springs cross country coach Sharon Jones.
A Fun Run for elementary grades 1-6 will kick off the event at 8:30 a.m. (grades 1-3, 800 meters) and 8:45 a.m. (grades 4-6, 1 mile), followed by the junior high races and the varsity races.
There will be two divisions for the races: small school (4A and below) and large school (5A and larger).
Medals will be awarded to the top 20 runners in each division.
The Panthers and Lady Panthers haven't raced since competing in the Elkins Invitational on Sept. 6.
"It was good for the high school kids to have the weekend off," Jones said. "I think our teams will run well."
The varsity boys finished fourth in their opening meet of the year at Shiloh Christian on Aug. 30 and then finished fifth at Elkins.
The Panthers should be getting a boost in the return of senior Tyler Low, who missed the first two meets with an injury.
The Lady Panthers finished first at Shiloh Christian but took third overall at Elkins. They'll also get back a runner in Laura Gutierrez, who also missed the first two races battling an injury.
"I believe they're ready," Jones said about Low and Gutierrez.
While taking the week off from competition, Jones said the Panthers and Lady Panthers got in some good workouts.
"We have had some good practices this week and were able to get in an extra-long run," Jones said.
Jones says as many as 1,200 runners could be participating in the Panther Cross County Classic.
She believes all the local 7A schools should be represented as well as most of the local smaller schools from Arkansas. Jones said several schools from Oklahoma should also be there.
Sports on 09/17/2014