Courtesy of Shari Miller

The first race of the day for the Juniata cross country team was the boys freshman race.  Josiah Barner led the Indians with a 44th place finish with a time of 19:34.9 for a new personal best.  David Mayall-Marker ran a time of 21:28.9 for 105th place and a personal best also.  Senior Luke Fowler ran in the boys JV race and placed 436th with a time of 22:33.  After the boys JV race, the next race for the Indians was the girls Champion race.  Sophomore Sylvia Brubaker took charge of the race around the 1 mile mark and had a 15 second lead by 2 miles.  She continued to push the lead out to 26 seconds to take the win in a time of 19:16.1 to take home a medal for her efforts.  Sophomore Hannah Book ran in the champion race also and placed 144th with a time of 28:30.  Juniata coach Jeff Miller said “David had a huge personal best in the freshman race and paced his race perfectly.  Sylvia ran strong out front to run a very solid race to take the win.  If I would have known how her race was going to played out, I would have put her in the challenge race to give her more competition.  It was still a great experience for her to be able to push herself with no one around her for over 2 miles.  With over 400 runners in the boys JV race, it was hard for Luke to run his own race.”

The last race of the day for Juniata was the boys Challenge race.  Senior Wyatt Stroup ran near the front the entire race to place 9th with a new personal best time of 15:53.9 and took home a trophy.  Senior Joey Bomberger ran to a 25th place finish with a time of 16:17.6 and received a medal for his efforts.  Senior Wesley Ehrisman placed 154th with a time of 18:17.  Sophomore Coy Kerstetter came in shortly after in 260th place with a personal best time of 18:20.5.  Rounding out the scoring for Juniata was senior Teagan Trout with a personal best time of 18:28.6 for 266th place.  Junior Kade Wagner placed 334th with a time of 19:37 for a huge personal best.  Sophomore Joel Hardin placed 355th in a time of 20:53.6 and a new personal best.  Juniata coach Jeff Miller said “I put the boys team in the more competitive larger school race not knowing how many runners would be in the race.  With 372 runners in the race, it made it nearly impossible for the majority of our boys to run their best with the course being packed with runners the entire way.  For most, we would have been better off in the Champion race with 223 runners.  Wyatt ran competitively near the front to place 9th with a personal best despite getting tripped up with 150 meters to go.  He spent a good 5 to 6 seconds on the ground before getting to his feet and finishing the race.  Joey wasn’t feeling the best for his race, buy stayed tough and ran the best he could for the day.  After talking to Coy and Teagan, it sounded like the biggest problem for them in the race was so many runners on the course making it difficult for them to run their own race.  We don’t see this many runners on the Hersey State Championship course and it is wider in most places.  For Coy, Teagan, Kade, and Joel to run personal best in this situation, it’s a good sign of what they can do when we run on the district course in 4 weeks.