By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

OAKVILLE – A strong year for the Pelham Panthers’ boys and girls cross country teams came to a close on Saturday, Nov. 11, at the 2017 AHSAA XC State Championship Meet held at the Oakville Indian Mounds Park.

While the boys didn’t have as strong of a race in the overall team classification, junior Adam Keller had the highest individual finish of the two teams.

Keller finished in the top 10 of the state meet thanks to a 10^th place finish after running the race in 16:37.05. The time topped Keller’s previous personal record set back in his first race of the season at the same course. He ran that race in 16:37.31, which meant he set his new personal record by .26 seconds.

As a team, the Pelham girls had a strong showing to end the season picking up an overall finish of fourth in the team standings. The Panthers finished the race with a total of 152 points, which was just five points behind John Carroll in third with a total of 147 points.

Junior Katie Strozier finished just outside of a top 10 finish taking 11^th in the race after finishing in 20:02.63. Just like Keller in the boys race, the time marked a new personal record for Strozier as she ran her best race when it counted most. It beat her previous record by four seconds.

Meredith Bass, also a junior, capped off her strong season with a top 20 finish taking 20^th on the dot. She finished the race in 20:44.45, which also set a personal record for her. Bass’ previous fastest time was in the first race of the season with a time of 20:51.49.

Alex Wilkins and Madilyn Dubose, both juniors as well, gave Pelham two more top 40 finishers. Wilkins finished in 30^th with a time of 21:13.98, while Dubose finished in 38^th with a time of 21:23.12. It marked a new personal record for Dubose.

Sydney Stephenson (72^nd), Zitaly Pacheco (92^nd), Gabrielle Bass (133^rd) and Annika Galloway (175^th) also competed in the state meet for the Pelham girls team.

The boys finished in 16^th overall in the team standings with 401 points as sophomore Dominic Fanella was the only other top 100 finisher for the Panthers. His time of 18:14.64 was good enough for 70^th and also a new personal record for the young runner.