The Tyrone cross country teams traveled to Allport on Tuesday for a meet against host West Branch, Bald Eagle Area and Philipsburg-Osceola.
The Tyrone boys (1-2)defeated Philipsburg-Osceola 21-34 and lost to West Branch 34-23.
Jim Gehret was the top Golden Eagle finisher with an overall fifth place spot in 20:34. Gehret wa closely followed by teammates Nathan Barber (sixth in 20:45), Dane McCloskey (seventh in 20:59) and Eric Sweet (eighth in 21:04).
Chris Bradigan had a top 20 finish with a time of 21:40, gooe for 15th overall.
Dan Clark of West Branch was firat across the finish line with a time of 18:16, followed by Bald Eagle Area’s Preston Bittinger. West Branch had the next two places followed by Mark Fetters who was Philipsburg-Osceola’s top finisher with a fourth place time of 20:30.
“I was very pleased with all our boys,” said Tyrone coach Tammy Snyder. “They ran very well tonight and out top five finished close together. we didn’t have the large gap between our first runner and the rest of the group. That is something that has hurt us in the past. Once again the recent weather made the course a lot tougher than it would have been normally. But, Jim, Nathan, Dane and Eric really met the challenge. Chris wasn’t far behind and he and Sam )McCloskey are really coming along well.”
The Tyrone Lady Eagles (1-2) also earned a split, defeating West Branch 15-50 and dropping a 45-20 decision to the Lady Mounties of Philipsburg-Osceola.
Rebecca Mogle led the Tyrone girls with a fourth place finish in 24:56. Erin Langenbacher was eighth overall in 25:16 and Emily Ingle placed 11th in 25:26. Adeena Harbst and newcomer Amber Davis completed the Lady Eagle runners giving Tyrone five girls for the first time. Five runners are scored in high school cross country. If a school has fewer runners, they can not win.
West Branch, in a case in point, had the top runner in the girls’ competition in Megan Natalie, with a time of 23”13, but lost to everybody, because she was the Lady Warriors only runner.
Danielle Lupton of Philipsburg-Osceola finished second in 23:18 and Mollie Josefic of Bald Eagle Area was third in 24:40.
“Rebecca ran very well tonight,” said coach Snyder. “She led our girls, with Erin and Emily not far behind. Amber davis did well for her first race. I think she will be an asset to the team as the season progresses.”
The next meet for the Tyrone cross country squads is with Penns Valley at home on Tuesday, Sept.16.
