Photos: Polk Middle runners open cross country season

Polk County Middle School’s boys cross country team caught a break Tuesday.

Running in the season-opening meet at home, the Wolverines raced around the course that began and ended on Utz Field, winding through the Polk County Recreation Complex in the process, without the dark clouds that loomed overhead releasing any form of precipitation. The last runners crossed the finish line still dry save from the perspiration generated from covering the tough course.

Those in the girls race that began shortly thereafter, not quite as lucky.

Raindrops began pelting the runners as they left the starting line, and within the first mile, an all-out downpour soaked the field. Yet the field pushed on, splashing its way through the woods behind the recreation complex, down into the park itself and then up and down the large hill near the complex entrance before heading back for Utz Field.

One more large hill awaited before the runners could race for the finish line – and some dry clothes.