Bay County cross country meet set for Saturday

PANAMA CITY BEACH — This year’s Bay County cross country championship will be highlighted by two new individual winners.

County teams Arnold, Bay, Mosley and Rutherford will convene at Frank Brown Park on Saturday for the annual event. The boys race begins at 8 a.m. and the girls follow soon after. The course is two laps, starting at the back parking lot and ending near the soccer fields.

Last year’s individual champions, Bay’s Gabe Holguin and Mosley’s Sydney Newsom, have departed. That leaves open the door for Arnold’s Mikayla Hodges, who is the favorite on the girls side.

Hodges was second last year after slipping and falling early in the race. She has been steady this year, including setting an Arnold school record of 20 minutes, 41.91 seconds in last weekend’s Panhandle Championship in Marianna. Other top runners who hope to challenge are Mosley’s Lessie Skiba and Courtney Muller, Bay’s Sarah Barwick and Rutherford’s Yujin Henson.

Arnold has a good chance to sweep the individual honors with a pair of runners who have pushed each other in recent meets. Top runner Challen Hyman has been chased closely and eclipsed a few times by teammate Chance Mason, both of whom have been running in the mid-17 minutes all season. Other teams’ top runners are Bay’s Chance Farner, Mosley’s Michael Keifer and Rutherford’s Andrew Wyllie.

Arnold’s boys are favored to win the team title. The girls race likely will come down to a battle between Mosley, which has won the last two titles, and Arnold.

Saturday’s course is expected to produce good times as well. Some of the course is on asphalt, which will provide for a faster terrain.