The Tyrone girls cross country team shares many of the same problems, the Bellwood girls face, particularly in the tale of lack of numbers. Both Bellwood-Antis coach Roseborough and Tyrone coach Tammy Snyder alluded to the fact that they have lost some of their best girls to volleyball. Think about whether you would want to run 8-10 miles every night for practice.
Coach Snyder and assistant Danielle Dougherty are very excited about the prospects for the 2002 Lady Eagles.
“Last year was kind of new, but now we all have a year of experience and we are expecting big things from both our boys and girls teams. Rebecca Mogle is just new to cross country, but she is going to be one of the names you hear a lot about. I am really impressed with Rebecca, she has even been running with the boys in practice.
Emily Ingle is just a freshman, but has been working really hard, showing us lots of progress. Angel Diehl, Adeena Harbst, Michelle Long and Erin Langenbacher are all returning letter winners and I really think they are all ready to go. Erin showed us what she could do last year and is just getting better all the time. Angel Diehl hasn’t been running her best the past couple of years, but has really shown a lot of improvement so far this season.”
Tyrone begins their season next Thursday, August 5 with a meet against Bellwood-Antis at Bellwood.
The Golden Eagle boys team has plenty of depth coming back and coach Snyder is very happy with he potential for a very successful campaign.
In scoring in cross country, the top five finishers from a school has the number of their finish added up. If you can get the first five runners done first, one plus two plus three plus four plus five equals 15, and the other team’s would equal 51, which is the same as a shutout in football or baseball.
“We are really pumped up about the way practices have been going,” commented Snyder. “The girls did well last year, but we are hoping we can sneak up on some of the boys teams we run against this year.”
The Tyrone boys team is anchored by returning vets Jim Gehret and Doug Brown and features several newer members who have shown a lot of promise in preseason practices.
“We rteally like our chances, ” said Snyder.” Jim Gehret was the top runner a year ago and he is back again this season. He is ready to go. Jim fell just a little bit short of his goals last season, a very small margin. This year, he is looking forward to the season and another chance.
Doug Brown has really worked hard as a senior. Of all our runners, boys and girls, Doug is probably the most improved.
Freshman Eric Sweet was a winner in junior high track last year, he did well enough in the two mile to qualify for districts in the two-mile when he had never run it before. Eric is the type of kid who is willing to try anything. He says, where do you want me and then goes out and does a good job. He has told some of the kids already that he wants to be the next Jim Wiggins and that’s quite a pair of big shoes to fill if he can accomplish that.”
Both Tyrone boys and girls compete in the Mountain Conference.
