Jones tops inaugural Young Harris College Invitational
By JARED PUTNAM

Panthers junior Chris Jones ran a personal best time of 17:30 in a rainy cross country meet Saturday, leading his team to a second place finish while becoming champion of the first annual Young Harris College Invitational. "That was nice," said Head Coach Jackie Hughes. "He's going to be in the history books for that."

Union County pushed through wet, slippery conditions to finish with 46 points. Towns County (79) and Rabun County (114) came in third and fourth respectively. Hayesville came in first with an impressive showing (20). Coach Hughes explained that the Panthers boys did not have a runner come in under 20 minutes against Gilmer, but had three in the teens at Young Harris. "The times for the boys got much better [over the first meet]," said Coach Hughes.

The coach said the team is working toward having all top 5 runners in the teens by region play. "We've got three out of five and the other ones are very close, so that's really good this time of the year." Alex Litman, Jr. finished seventh overall with a time of 18:31, Jared (Bo) Kelley finished 10th overall with a time of 9:34, Victor Gonzalez finished 18th overall with a time of 20:25, and T.J. Burgess finished 20th overall with a time of 21:02.

The Panthers girls placed fourth (89) in their race, close behind Towns (72) and Rabun (64). Hayesville came in first with another strong showing (19). Still, Union County performed better in this second competition. "Their times improved incredibly," said Coach Hughes. "Our goal is to continue to take a couple of minutes off each meet, and be very competitive by October." Emma Krier finished ninth overall wiht a time of 24:48, Jasmin Gonzalez finished 15th overall with a time of 25:51, Hannah Dohogne finished 16th overall with a time of 25:59, Erika Bunpermkoon finished 21st overrall with a time of 26:40, and Alicia Kohner finished 22nd overall with a time of 26:53.

Speaking before Tuesday's practice, the coach said that good conditioning requires a blend of runs. "We mix it up between endurance running and speed work." One day the team will do a long run of an hour at a slow steady pace, while working on hills another day, then following up with a 3 mile run. Said Coach Hughes, "With the younger athletes endurance is the big thing."