It’s round two for the Panorama Panther cross country teams as they seek to defend their home course for the second time in the past two weeks, this time for state qualifying.

Both Panther squads are coming off of outstanding performances in their respective conference meets with the boys squad earning a solid second place with the Lady Panthers taking the top spot earning first place. They will now look to use that momentum as they take on the 29 team field today.

In gearing up for today’s meet Panorama Panther head cross country coach Greg Thompson has bee working hard with both his teams on a few different aspects as he notated speaking with Raccoon Valley Radio.

“We’re going out and practice on our starts since I thought we were pretty week on that the other day and there’s going to be three times as many runners so we have to get out a little bit faster,” stated coach Thompson.

Of course, with this being their home course, despite other teams finding familiarity in Panorama’s course, coach Thompson believes that his teams strengths combined with their expert knowledge of the course, the Panthers have the ultimate leg up on their competition.

“Where our strength comes from is in the middle and the end. The beginning of our course is probably the toughest part of the race because it is constantly up and down hills or hair pin turns. That’s the part that our kids are going to be good at, ready for, they know that’s coming. I know there’s other conference schools but not every team is aware of that and we’ve only had a few schools request permission to run it so I think we’re going to have a big advantage over some of those schools,” explained coach Thompson.

Both Panther squads will kick things off from their home course toady beginning at 4:00 pm.