The Bellwood-Antis boys and girls cross country teams hosted Blair County rivals Tyrone and Bishop Guilfoyle on Tuesday on the B-A course.
The B-A boys (5-1) with Ben Hatch racing to the finish line in 17:21 to claim first place, defeated Tyrone 22-36, and Bishop Guilfoyle 19-44, while the Lady Blue Devils (5-1) used a balanced effort to down the Tyrone and Bishop Guilfoyle girls, defeating BG 15-50, and Tyrone 15-49.
The Tyrone boys (3-3) defeated BG 21-34, while the Lady Eagles (1-5) tamed the BG girls 15-50.
In the girls’ race, BG’s only runner Dani Williams captured first place in 21:09, and the Bellwood-Antis girls led by Kelley Killinger claimed the next six places.
Killinger was second in 22:49, followed by Sarah Bell, who was third in 23:08, Emily O’Shea, fourth in 24:31, Allison Derr, fifth in 24:37, Erin Morrissey, sixth in 24:40, and Becca Colyer, seventh in 24:55.
Tyrone’s Christina Dougherty led the Lady Eagles with an eighth place finish in 25:42.
Lady Blue Devil Brittany Webb was ninth in 26:24 and Tyrone’s Salena Bradigan rounded out the top 10 with a 10th place time of 27:12.
“The girls did great!” said Tyrone coach Tammy Wills. “We were finally able to score as a team (a cross country team must have five runners to be scored in a meet), and that was a real boost for them. They all ran good races and greatly improved their times. We had a lot of smiling faces after they finished. I look forward to seeing what they can do as a team.”
Lady Eagle teammate Lizzy Shields was right behind Bradigan in 11th with a time of 29:11. Other Tyrone runners included Amber Davis (16th) and Brittany Hosband (19th).
Lady Blue Devil runners included Leslie Mills (12th), Nicole Post (13th), Jenna Nevling (14th), Rachel Bilko (15th), Andrea Isola (17th), Danielle Blatt (18th), and Sara Shaulis (20th).
“Dani Williams ran a good race, but our girls won with a great team effort,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Julia Roseborough. “We had seven of the top 10 places overall. The veterans, (Sarah Bell, Becca Colyer, Brittany Webb) did well, and the youngsters (Kelley Killinger, Emily O’Shea, Allison Derr, Erin Morrissey) are coming along. Our sophomores and freshmen are really doing well.
“Leslie Mills, who is a four-year team member ran a very nice race, getting her all-time best in four year on the squad in what was a nice story for her.”
For the Bellwood-Antis boys, Jamie Rimmey backed up Hatch with a third place finish in 18:51, Cooper Campbell was sixth in 19:16, Tyler Hunter was seventh in 19:45, John Wolfe was ninth in 19:54 and Garett Wyland was 10th in 20:06.
“Our course is fast, but it was still a great time for Ben Hatch,” said Roseborough. “He was over a minute in front of his closest competitor. The boys ran a very balanced race. Although only the top five runners are scored, we were able to use our sixth and seventh place runners to displace the other schools’ runners, who were forced to move down in the standings, because our sixth and seventh place runners finished ahead of some of their scoring runners. This gave their runners lower places and more points which hurt both teams scores.”
Dustin Elder led the Golden Eagles effort with a fourth place finish in 19:06, and Bradley McNeal was eighth in 19:53.
Scott Hammer was the top runner for Bishop Guilfoyle with a time of 18:32 good enough to finish second behind Hatch.
Philip Kreckle was 11th for Tyrone in 20:12 and Randy Wilson was 15th in 21:02.
Other Golden Eagles in the competition were Daniel Kilgus (22nd), Joe Miller (26th), Caleb Dillon (29th) and Ben Smerekar (30th).
“Our boys did a fantastic job today,” exclaimed Wills. “We knew that it was going to be a tough one, but our boys did very well against BG and held their own against Bellwood-Antis. Everybody ran really hard races and each and everyone of them iamproved their time by a good bit. They are all coming along so well.”
Other Blue Devil runners included Jeff Stuby (12th), Ronnie Wilson (18th), Brad Rydbom (19th), Nathan Glunt (20th), T. J. Byers (24th), Jordan Miller (25th), Jimmie Mattern (27th), Dylan Nelson (28th), Donnie Partner (31st), Ryan Wolfe 32nd) and Adam Hanna (34th).
