XC competes at Grant

Fifth grader Clara Tuttle finished 19th out of 120 runners in the 1-mile race, while four high school runners made their season debuts in the 39th Annual Grant County Invitational held at Sherman Elementary Saturday.

The day started out cold and rainy for the girls varsity 5K race, head coach Joe Creager said in an e-mail. The Lady Panthers were led by junior Sierra Martinez, making her debut for the team as she is also playing soccer this fall. She finished with a time of 27:51.9. Also running for the girls team was sophomore Kristen Doan, who ran a time of 33:51.9.

By the start of the boys varsity 5K race, the skies had started to clear and the rain stopped. However the course was very muddy, wet and slick in some spots (especially coming up the rolling hills), Creager said.

Junior Michael Burns, also making his season debut despite having a soccer Invitational at home the same day, led the Panthers with a time of 20:25.3. The boys team also added soccer players Denis Perez and Andres Baquero.

Leading runner Austin Crowell was out of town, but the team still had a lot of success in the race from athletes who had either never run a varsity race or who had not done so this season, Creager said. He thinks his team will be strong in time for the conference championship.

The following are the remainder of the boys varsity scores: Austin Crank, 21:31.1; Brad Osborne, 21:59.0, Perez, 22:27.4; Baquero, 25:25.3; Matthew Beach, 32:25.0; and Jacob Beach, 33:20.9.

In the elementary 1600 meter run, Carroll’s sole participant, Tuttle, ran a time of 7:29.1 to better more than 100 competitors. She earned a medal for her efforts and also bettered her time from last year by more than 90 seconds, Creager said.

The Panthers will be off this week for Homecoming week and will be in action against Tuesday, Sept. 18 at Henry County.