Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis participated in a big cross country race on the Tyrone course on Tuesday afternoon and both came away with successful results.
The Tyrone boys (5-2) romped over Juniata Valley 15-50, Mount Union 17-44 and Bald Eagle Area 15-50, while losing to Penns Valley 33-22, and getting edged by Bellwood-Antis in a tiebreaker after the five scorers from each team tied 28-28.
Bellwood-Antis defeated Tyrone, Juniata Valley 15-50, Bald Eagle Area 15-50, and Mount Union 15-48, and lost to Penns Valley 44-18. Huntingdon had only two runners in the boys race, and no girls.
Penns Valley romped past everyone with the top two boys runners, and the top two girls runners, and more than enough balance to add five wins to their record for the day on both boys and girls sides.
Rich Stever, a sophomore at Tyrone, was the top area finisher, with a third place overall among the more than 90 runners from the five schools, in a time of 18:18. Dustin Elder was fifth in 18:55, Niko Lambert was 10th in 20:10, Tyler Vasbinder was 17th in 21:59, and Devin Wiser was 19th in 22:28.
“It was a little crazy with all these teams and runners on our course tonight, almost like an invitational,” said Tyrone cross country coach Tammy Wills. “But it made things fun and worked out well.”
Bellwood-Antis had no boy finish in the top six overall, but Cooper Campbell was seventh in 19:02, and teammates Tyler Hunter was ninth in 20:04, Talon Sickler was 11th in 20:14, Matt Rimmey was 12th in 20:16 and Corey Miller was 16th in 21:24. The closely-packed group, described by Bellwood-Antis coach Julie Roseborough as a “middle of the pack team victory,” led the Blue Devils to improve their record to 5-1.
In the close victory over Tyrone, the Blue Devils sixth runner, Cody Fink, edged the Golden Eagles’ sixth runner by a second to pull out the victory. Normally the top five runners for each school get points. In the case of a tie, the sixth runner from each school is the tiebreaker.
“He (Fink) sprinted by at the finish to win by a second,” said Roseborough. “We didn’t have anybody in the top five, everybody was in the middle of the pack. It was a true team victory.”
Other Tyrone runners included Travis Johnson, Ross Black, Derrick Wilson, Glenn Briggs and Randy Wilson.
Bellwood-Antis also had John Wolfe, David Wolfe, Josiah Epple, Michael Isola, Shane Browder, Connor Hunter, Kevin Anello, Zach Estright, and Mike Hollen.
The Bellwood-Antis girls defeated Mount Union 15-48, Bald Eagle Area 15-50, Tyrone 15-50 and edged Juniata Valley 27-29, while getting beat by Penns Valley 18-44.
Tyrone had only four scorers and lost to Penns Valley, Juniata Valley and Mount Union, in addition to the B-A girls.
Emily Stapleton was the highest local finisher in the girls race. The B-A sophomore ran a 22:25, followed by Emily Derr, who was 14th overall in 25:53, Kelley Killinger, 17th in 26:54, Allison Derr, 18th in 26:59, and Erin Morrissey, 22nd in 27:41.
Emily Stapleton ran a good race, the two Penns Valley girls who beat her are really good runners,” said Roseborough. “The other four girls, Emily and Allison Derr, Kelley Killinger and Erin Morrissey are all about the same. They will vary the order in different meets, but do a good job at backing up Emily.”
Ashley Salyer’s 10th-place finish was the Lady Eagles top runner, in 25:15. Ashley Ford was 24th, Christina Daugherty 29th and Stephane Schmit 35th for Tyrone
