Lady Panthers on the Run

“Those girls can run!”

These “girls,” are of course the girls varsity cross country team, composed of nine of the top panther female runners.  The girls have had a good season with great new additions to the team, considering one key varsity player is a freshman. 

Ella Conklin, freshman, has hit the ground running with an awesome start to her cross country career.  The varsity underclassman has been a top runner for the team, and scored a portion of the girls’ points last weekend at the conference meet at Liberty North.

“I did cross country in middle school and really enjoyed it.  When the high school girls came and ran with us at a Lakeview practice it sounded like a lot of fun,” Conklin said. 

She started coming to the summer runs this past summer, and shortly after she gained her varsity spot on the team.  

The workouts have been hard this week, but with the districts meet coming up, the team is doing all that they can to prepare for the meet.  Multiple teams from the area and that are similar in size to South will be at this meet. They have some tough competitors.

Conklin, nervous but excited, is hoping to hit a new PR, and beat her old personal record of 21:12 at the Lee’s Summit North Invitational this past September.  

With the cross country season progressing into the championship series (three weeks of eliminatory meets all leading up to the state meet in Columbia), the girls are hopeful for the end of their competitive season.  Hopefully the weather is in their favor and they hit the ground running with some personal records.