Two races into the season and the Panorama Panthers girls cross country team appears to be in midseason form. The Panther runners visited Menlo’s 5 x 80 golf course Thursday for the fifth annual Wildcat Cross Country Classic hosted by West Central Valley. The Panther girls cross country team defended their meet championship with a low score of 24. The first three runners across the finish line were from Panorama. Sophomore Ella Waddle dominated the field, earning meet medalist with a time of 19:49. Her time was nearly two minutes better than her freshman teammate Payton Beckman. Beckman was the runner-up medalist with a time of 21:46. Other Panorama medalists include Gwen Steffen third, Olivia Steffen eighth, and Brooklyn Behrends 13th. The Raccoon Valley Radio Network caught up with Panorama cross country coach Greg Thompson after the meet. He was incredibly pleased with the results of the girls’ race. “We’re really pleased with (Thursday’s) performance,” Thompson said, “We knew the girls would probably not be challenged too hard but they met the challenge of going out and running as fast as they could run. A 1-2-3 finish on the girls side is pretty impressive. (The) boys, they were in the back of the pack, but their times were really good. They’re starting to figure out that we got to run as a pack. Now we just have to get that pack up a little higher.

The Panorama boys cross country team came away in sixth place out of 10 teams with a score of 159. Kevin Kogel clocked Panorama’s best time at 19:44 good for 24th place overall. The West Central Valley Wildcats had three individuals earn medals at the Wildcat Cross Country Invitational. Loudon Foster took second in the boys’ race with a race time of 17:15. Jayden Dixon also medaled in the boys’ race with a 13th place finish at 18:52. Aliyah Dixon was the last of the 15 medalists in the girls’ race with a time of 23:24. The Wildcat boys cross country placed fifth overall while the girls didn’t have enough runners to produce a team score. Both Panorama and West Central Valleys cross country teams will compete in next week’s Greene County Cross Country Invitational at Spring Lake outside Jefferson.