By Allen Hamrick
The CCHS cross country team took to the road last week to compete in the Regional Championships at Wirt County High School. Here, both the boys’ and girls’ teams competed for the chance to advance to the state competition held in Huntington. Teams also had to place in the top four for the whole team to be able to advance to the states. The girls were set to run first, and there were high hopes that this would be the time that the whole CCHS cross country team would qualify for the state competition. With 9th grader McKinley Mahan leading the way for the girls, they stood a very good chance of getting there. This was a tough course with the hills involved, and it would be a tough run. However, when the first of the runners were in sight of the finish line, McKinley Mahan was leading the pack for the Lady Panthers. She crossed the line in 11th place, and the rest of the girls – Abigail Grandon, Cheyanne Taylor, Ashley Roberts and Jayda Stricker – finished ahead of most of the pack and did a good job of running for the team points. Once all the points per runner were added up, the official word came that the CCHS girls team finished second overall and were heading to the state competition.
The boys were up next and kept pace with the pack, but unfortunately the team didn’t get enough points to qualify for the state competition. Kaden Fitzwater led the Panther boys to a 12th place finish to qualify individually for the state competition, and also was named second team LKC. They have done a whale of a job for the team all year long and have set the pace for future runners of the CCHS Cross-Country team.
The track at Huntington will be a faster course than the regional track, and this will no doubt play into the hands of the girls and Kaden as they go for the gold. Congratulations to the Lady Panthers on the second-place finish and to the rest of the team. Good luck at the state competition which will be this Saturday at Cabell- Midland High School. Go Panthers!
