On Saturday the Franklin Cross Country program travelled to Troy to compete in the Division I regional championships. Light rain earlier in the day softened up the course without leading to muddy conditions and along with cooler temperatures led to some of the fastest times across the state.

Franklin's day began with the Division I girls race at 2 pm. Kensington Black was our sole runner in this race and needed to finish in the top 20 in order to earn a spot at the state championship. The runners went out fast in the first mile and Kensi came through at the back end of the lead pack, setting herself up to compete well. After mile two she had moved up and was firmly within the top 20. Kensi then put in a surge at the top of the levee during mile 3 and secured 19th place overall with a strong finish and her best time of the season so far (18:57.1). As a result of her tremendous effort and hundreds of miles logged throughout the season she has now secured a chance to compete in her second state cross country championship. The meet will be held next Saturday at Fortress Obetz in Obetz OH, just south of Columbus at 2pm.

The boys division 1 regional championship followed the girls. Our boys came into the race ranked 17th out of 18 teams competing. The boys were looking to outperform their ranking and see if we could get some individual qualifiers to the state meet by finishing in the top 24. This race went out much faster than most of the runners were expecting, coming through the first mile in some of the fastest times we have seen all season. Connor Green and Chris Bond were hanging on to the second pack of runners and had to try and make up some serious ground during miles 2 and 3. Connor did just that, moving steadily up and passing runners as he gave maximum effort throughout those second and third miles. Unfortunately Connor fell just short of qualifying for state with a 30th place finish and a time of 16:19.1. As a team the boys outperformed their ranking finishing in 16th place out of 18 teams, just behind Piqua and Lebanon and in front of Lakota West and Lakota East.

This has been an incredibly successful run for the boys team here at Franklin, accomplishing some things that have never been done before. Last year as a team they qualified for the division 1 regional meet for the first time in school history. They followed that up this year by being SWBL champions for the first time in school history and once again qualifying as a team for the division 1 regional meet. Congratulations to all of the runners that have worked so hard to make this program into the success it is today, and good luck to Kensi Black next Saturday at the division 1 State Championship meet.