October 16, 2015 at 10:13 a.m.
Panthers compete in Zimpel Memorial
On the boy's side, William McLeer ran a personal best time of 18:22 to earn a medal for an 11th place finish.
"I'm proud of how William ran," said coach Jake Winkler. "He has been ill for about the past week, and this was the first race that I thought he looked like he did before he got sick."
The Panthers were not at full strength for the meet.
"We've had a couple of injuries pop up, and several runners under the weather," said Winkler. "We finished 7th out of 11 teams. This was our second race in a row without Paul Connolly, who has been our third runner, as he was out with an illness."
The boys finishes were McLeer, 11th, 18:22.1; Ben Connolly, 20th, 19:01.3; Easton Dobson, 32nd, 20:09.1; Wyatt Reeves, 63rd, 23:06.2; Jacob Soman, 64th, 23:07.7; Mason Moon, 70th, 24:40.2 and Ben Amend, 72nd, 26:04.2.
"As a team, we need to try to get healthy before the Conference meet next Thursday," said Winkler. "We have had some great performances so far this season and now the trick is to get the kids to peak at the right time."
For the girl's team, Angela Melby cracked the top 15 to earn a medal with a 22:43, less than 10 seconds off her season best time.
"As a team, we finished 7th out of 8 complete teams," Winkler said. "This was the first race of the season for freshman runner Liz Biddick, who has been sidelined with a knee injury. She ran a 27:52 to finish third on our team."
"It was really gratifying to see Liz race," Winkler added. She has been building up strength in her knee, and to see her out there was great. I know she was a little nervous, but she performed well for us, and I expect the same down the stretch."
For the girls, Melby was 25th at 22:43.6, Caitlyn Fowell, 35th, 26:10.3; Biddick, 41st, 27:52.0; Makayla Dicken, 44th, 29:19.1; Julia Cockroft, 49th, 31:08.7; McKenna Marshall, 50th, 31:21.5; Jamie Dilley, 51st, 31:40.5.
"Overall, I thought Boscobel was a great cross country course that poses unique challenges that we haven't seen this year," Winkler said. "The first mile or so of the course is downhill, so establishing a consistent pace is challenging."
