Girls’ XC Defends State Title!
The Lady Panthers proved today that they are still the strongest XC team at the 2A level.
The State XC Championships were held today in Colorado Springs, and although the Lady Panthers were the defending champs, they were not projected to win against a young Heritage Christian team.
The ladies of Heritage Christian went out aggressively and were in the lead at the 1 mile mark, but the Lake County crew moved well through the next 1.5 miles. In the end, Heritage Christian’s first runner finished in 4th place, but all 4 Lake County scorers finished before Heritage Christian’s 2nd girl, securing the win for the Lady Panthers.
Lake County was led by senior Adele Horning, who took 7th in 20 minutes 28 seconds. Keira King just missed a top 10 medal, placing 11th in 20:49. Violet Hill improved on her 2021 performance by 54 seconds and placed 12th in 20:51. Ella Bullock dropped 41 seconds from last year to reach 21:00 and 15th place. Brynna Lenhard and Clara Kirr both set new lifetime best times, running 21:54 and 22:15 respectively for 28th and 41th places.
In the men’s race, Jace Peters capped off his senior season by finishing as the silver medalist. He ran 16:21, 47 seconds faster than his 2021 time.
The rest of the Panther men competed on the state course for the first time. Freshman Jaren Peters ran 18:46, the same time that Jace Peters ran at state his 9th grade year. Abel Gonzales ran 20:06, close to his personal best. Matthew Wilson set a lifetime best of 20:17, and Martin Garcia pushed past some opponents in the last mile to finish in 23:24.
As a team, the men were 14th out of 20 teams, but they beat all 3 teams that had beaten them in the regional meet last week.
