Heading down the second half of the race season and the Panorama varsity boys and girls cross country runners are working on tightening their pack on the course. Panorama head cross country coach Greg Thompson was a guest on Monday’s Wahl McAtee Tire and Service Center Guthrie County PM Sports Page and discussed each squad’s plan as we close in on the state qualifying race. Thompson said the goal for members of the Panorama girls cross country team is to be within two minutes of the Panthers’ top runner sophomore Ella Waddle. “Ella’s beating her own teammates by about two minutes,” Thompson said, “So if we can get Payton Beckman, Gwen Steffen, those two and three (runners) to get a bit closer to Ella at the state meet, that’s going to be a huge difference (in our scoring). A two-minute gap at state is a ton of points.”

As for the boys’ team, Thompson said their top three runners in senior Levi Richey, senior Noah Kirtley, and freshman Kevin Cogil are all really close together. “(They) are usually within 30 seconds (of each other), and then we have that drop off from our four and five (runners),” Thompson said, “They drop off probably another minute behind them. So I need to get (our four and five runners) up near (our top three).”

The Panorama Cross Country teams will resume their race season Thursday at Menlo’s 5 x 80 Golf Course for the West Central Valley Cross Country Invitational. Varsity races begin at 5 p.m.