The Park Hill South boys and girls cross country teams will not be short on experience as they enter a new season, returning record-setting talent with hopes of more state medals.
Back-to-back cross country state medalist Thomas Garrett will have a third opportunity this season while other veterans will look to join him in reeling in hardware. The Panther boys return four of the team’s top five scorers from last year.
“We have such a strong core group of five seniors leading this team,” boys head coach Zachary Wiemers said. “They lead by example and have grown in their communication skills. Our underclassmen are very fortunate to have those five to look to for guidance.”
Garrett, who has four state medals between cross country and track, is joined by returning state cross country qualifiers Cole James and Grant Windmeyer as well as David Meyer and Simon Ketter. Garrett hopes to improve from his 12th-place all-state finish last year, running a 5K in 15 minutes, 20 seconds, while the rest of the team aims to edge closer to the 16-minute mark.
The Panthers also return three of the four runners (Garrett, Windmeyer, Ketter) from the spring track 4x800-meter relay team. The trio helped the Panthers earn a second-place medal with the third-fastest time in state history.
Wiemers has hope that this year will be one that sends a talented senior class off in the right way. Their leadership will also be instrumental in ushering in the next generation of Panther distance runners.
“This is the senior year for a core group of runners that have broken the school record for the past two years,” Wiemers said.
The girls will be led by a senior class filled with leadership from Madi Conklin, Gracie Droleski, Zoe Flook and Sophia Osterhaus. Conklin is the school record holder in the 1600 and 5K, returning as a three-time state medalist after her second top-10 finish last fall.
“We added three new seniors and it is always wonderful to have athletes join the team and try something new,” girls head coach Pam Jurgensmeyer said.