Cross country opens with strong showing
By Christian Lehman

The Union County Panthers and Lady Panthers cross-country runners had a very strong showing on Monday at Gilmer County. The girls took team first place and the boys took team second place, picking up where they left off last year as one of north Georgia's premier cross-country programs.

The girl runners finished with 22 points, a margin of victory of 45 points over Gilmer county, their closest competitor. The boys finished second by only three points to state championship rivals Gilmer County. According to coach Jackie Hughes "we are happy to be only three points behind" in the first event of the season. The top five runners on each team are scored according to where they place at the finish.

Coach Hughes lost many of her best runners at the end of last year, so she was entirely aware of what to expect. This year brings in many new young faces and they did not disappoint. On the girl's side, Maryanne Schramke, a sophomore running in her first race placed third overall. Hannah Dohgne and Rachel Litman both freshmen running in their first race placed in the top seven.

On the boys side, the three Kelly boys, Bo, Shane and Luke all did very well in their first meet, placing 7th, 14th, and 15th respectively. Coach Hughes laments that the "times weren't as fast as last year" but the teams "only had two weeks to prepare as opposed to last years three weeks before the first meet."

Next up will be the Young Harris Invitational on September 2nd. Hughes plans to "work on endurance" and put on some miles before the Young Harris meet which since it is an invitational meet will have lots of runners from all over the state participating.