Maple Grove’s Lukas Baer runs during CCAA cross country action Tuesday in Panama. P-J photo by Jay Young

PANAMA — One thing was clear after a full afternoon of racing at Panama Central School on Tuesday — the area’s top distance runners have not lost stride in the midst of COVID-19.

Maple Grove’s Luke Baer would clock a new course record on the hilly 3.1-mile track, breaking the 18-minute mark with a time of 17:55 to take home the boys varsity race.

Baer was able to pull away in the final stretch of that heat, with Southwestern’s Nate Lewis hot on his heals with a time of 18:00.0 (also under the previous record).

“This is one of the toughest courses maybe in the county,” Clymer/Sherman/Panama coach Ray Shrout said. “Randolph’s course might be tougher than ours, but I don’t think a boy had ever broken 18 on this course before today and then two of the boys were under 18, so that was really good to see. It is kind of obvious to see which kids are really motivated throughout all of this, because those are the kids that are going to come out and run really strong in the first race, even with all of this going on.”

Falconer’s Bryce Baglia had previously held the record at 18:06.

Maple Grove’s Abby Brunenavs, left, and Tina Peppy run the course in Panama on Tuesday. P-J photo by Jay Young

Southwestern would claim the team title with 22 points, followed by C/S/P with 54 and Maple Grove with 60.

Lewis was pushed on by a cadre of teammates, as the Trojans finished with six of the top 10 runners including Trenton Shutters (18:34.6), Ethan Luce (18:44.3) and Carter McKotch (19:05.3).

Leading the hosts was sixth-place John Swabik with a time of 19:16.3.

“Overall I was really happy with the way today went,” Shrout said. “For the last week I was kind of reviewing every detail in my head for today. How the finish chute was going to work. As far as where to put teams, we spaced teams out around the track so every team had their own site. I feel like the kids did a fantastic job, all the kids from all three schools.”

Before celebrating Baer’s historic effort, Maple Grove already had plenty of reason to be excited as the Red Dragons finished 1-2-3-4 in the girls varsity race to take home that team title with 17 points.

C/S/P would grab 47 points and Southwestern 66.

Tina Peppy led the way with a 21:31.9, followed by Abby Brunenavs (22:11.8), Ava Crist (22:22.6) and Tori Pavlock (23:05.2).

Tayden Persons would run a 23:39 to finish fifth and Jenna Fisher a 23:49.6 to take sixth for the Wolfpack, while Lily Nelson led Southwestern with a 24:22.7.

“We had a very strong showing today from the girls,” Maple Grove coach Steve Matteson said. “We’ve always known we had a very strong top three, but my surprise today was Tori Pavlock taking fourth. She had a smile on her face, she looked the best I’ve seen her in a long time. She looked strong. So I was very proud of Tori Pavlock taking fourth, and Abby Brunenavs had an absolutely phenomenal race today taking second behind Tina. I’m very happy with both of them today, how hard they have worked over the summer on their own.”

Matteson said that prior to the race, it was obvious how excited the cross country community was to be back running again despite all of the changes necessitated by a pandemic.

“Ray Shrout and I both texted each other this morning, I don’t think we’ve been more excited for our first league meet of a season, because we didn’t know if it would be coming or not this year,” he said. “The uncertainty really was tough but I basically have told everybody, it is an opportunity, let’s take the best advantage of it that we can. It was really great, not just seeing our own team competing but being able to be out here with the whole endurance cross-country community. It was really great toeing the start line with everyone again for the first time in a long time.”

It would be understandable for runners to take some time to get up to speed this season, considering the lack of training and scheduling changes that have taken place. Tuesday, however, did not offer many examples of that.

“It was a great sign. First race of the year and you get a course record, that is very impressive,” Matteson said. “Especially with a season that, we didn’t really have the same summer training that we normally have.”

BOYS VARSITY

1. Luke Baer (MG); 2. Nate Lewis (S); 3. Trenton Shutters (S); 4. Ethan Luce (S); 5. Carter McKotch (S); 6. John Swabik (C/S/P); 7. Alex Crist (MG); 8. Griffin Bogdanowicz (S); 9. Brendan Luce (S); 10. Owen White (C/S/P). T–17:55.4

GIRLS VARSITY

1. Tina Peppy (MG); 2. Abby Brunenavs (MG); 3. Ava Crist (MG); 4. Tori Pavlock (MG); 5. Tayden Persons (C/S/P); 6. Jenna Fisher (C/S/P); 7. Hannah Tarbrake (MG); 8. Allie Bohall (MG); 9. Haley Odell (C/S/P); 10. Lily Nelson (S). T–21:31.9