Jackson County's goal from day one was to win the girls’ Region 8-AA cross country title, and coach Joseph Brubaker said his team’s focus hasn’t changed with the region meet looming Thursday.
“No, it hasn’t,” he said. “We’ve been dealing with a few injuries lately. Hopefully, we’ll tough it out. We’ll talk more this week about what we want to do.”
Based on regular season returns, Jackson County could be considered the favorite to take the title since it hasn’t lost to a region team all year. The Lady Panthers — who are coming off a victory last week in a nine-team meet at East Jackson — hope that trend continues in Thursday’s race at Crow’s Lake, a course that with which the Lady Panthers are intimately familiar. Crow’s Lake, located in Jefferson, is less than a mile from Jackson County’s campus.
“We practice there once a week,” Brubaker said. “It should be somewhat of an advantage. But it’s tough when you put 13 teams out there.”
Brubaker expects East Jackson, Jefferson and North Oconee, along with his team, to all be in the running for the region title on the girls’ side. The Lady Panthers will also have to contend with teams from the northern part of the region that they rarely see.
“The North is kind of a mystery,” Brubaker said.
The top four teams from each region advance to the state meet in Carrollton.
Meanwhile, the Jackson County boys’ team wants to finish strong.
The Panthers had five runners — J.T. Wood, Jonathan Mayfield, Dusty Haralson, Tyler Manulich and Tyler Ledford — all break 20 minutes in Jackson County’s recent meet at East Jackson.
Jackson County’s objective is to place in the top half of the region standings and hopefully have five more sub-20 times to close the season.
“We still want to be in the top half and really gain momentum for next year,” Brubaker said.
