LAWRENCE, Kan. -- A select group of runners from the Siloam Springs varsity boys and girls cross country teams participated Saturday in the annual University of Kansas Rim Rock Farm High School Classic.
And though no personal records were set on Saturday, head coach Sharon Jones came away pleased with the performances of the Panthers and Lady Panthers.
"The course is extremely hard," Jones said. "I'm impressed with the runners and how well they did considering the hills that they were running on."
The defending 6A champion Lady Panthers, competing against teams from all over the region, finished 14th out of 33 teams in the Crimson Division. Rogers High School won the meet. The Panthers, meanwhile, finished 25th out of 42 teams in the Crimson Division.
Junior Jasmine Guillen finished 17th out of 230 runners to lead the Lady Panthers with a time of 20:28.60, while senior Elliott Pearson was 22nd out of 294 runners at 17:01.30 to lead the Panthers.
Both Guillen and Pearson received medals.
"I'm especially excited for Elliott and Jasmine," Jones said. "We did not come close to medaling anyone last year."
Mary Anne Reid finished 45th overall for the Lady Panthers with a time of 21:12.90, while Caroline Farine was 101st at 22:24.20.
Alexis Duffy finished 118th with a time of 22:38.30. Abigail Cole placed 151st at 23:16.70, while Allika Pearson was 159th at 23:23.80 and Hannah Herring 160th at 23:25.10.
"Our girls continue to run strong," Jones said. "Everyone pushed hard and did their best. They did a great job staying together for the first mile. Jasmine ran this course faster than she did our home course. Mary Anne was only four seconds over her time last week, and this course was considerably harder than ours."
For the boys, Parker Wallis placed 122nd at 18:20.00, while Connor Humphrey was 163rd at 18:37.10.
Isaac Leachman finished 195th at 19:03.70, while Bobby Norwood was 200th at 19:06.40, Aaron Capehart 208th at 19:11.30 and Charlie Jones 258th at 20:10.50.
"Parker Wallis did exceptionally well this week, coming off last week's meet when he wasn't feeling very well," Jones said. "His times are really good this week. Connor is still running strong as well, finishing not far off his time from last week. The boys stayed pretty close together throughout the race, which was a goal of ours."
Sports on 09/30/2015