On Saturday the cross country teams travelled to beautiful Fort St. Clair Park in Eaton for the SWBL championship meet. This course presents a true cross country experience with rolling hills through the park and perfect fall temperatures for the day.

The meet began with the varsity girls championship race and our girls came out to prove what they were capable of. Laila Black and Gigi Perkins ran strong races, pacing the team. Laila came through the first mile marker with her fastest first mile of the season and continued to lead our team through the finish with her second fastest time ever finishing in 15th place with a time of 21:49.4 and right on her heels with a massive PR was Gigi Perkins with a time of 21:53.5. With her time Saturday Gigi also moved into 6th place on the Franklin girls all time top ten race times list. Laila and Gigi earned second team all SWBL honors with their finishes. Our 3rd, 4th and 5th runners came through the finish close together and were respectively Kydee Shults (23:40), Bryley Wulff (23:49) and Brooklyn Hall with a new PR time of 24:26.9. Also running a new personal record time was Chloe Moore with a time of 34:39. It was a great overall showing and as a team the girls finished in 5th for the southwest division.

In the boys race things got going quickly with many of our runners passing the mile marker in record time. Oliver Crosthwaite led the way, powering through the course with the top group of runners and completing the rolling course in a new personal best time of 17:05.9. He finished in 8th place for the Southwest division and earned first team all SWBL honors. Daniel Osborne was our second runner across the line with his second fastest time ever finishing in 18:16.2. Kellen Dunn came through third for the Wildcats with a new PR time 19:37. He was followed by Donovan Schuyler (20:22), Tre Henley (20:39), Cherif Sore (20:42), Caleb Osborne (20:49), and Brian Davidson-Cunningham (20:52). As a team the Wildcats finished 4th in the Southwest division just missing 3rd place.

This Saturday, October 18th, we travel to Cedarville for the division II district championship meet. We will be looking to advance not only individuals but both our girls and boys teams to regionals the following weekend at Troy, if we can put together some of our best races of the season. Come out and support the runners as the races start at 1pm. Let's go Wildcats!