By Kenny Varner

COCOLAMUS – Rivals took to the track Monday as the Juniata Indians track team traveled to Cocolamus. Also competing was Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy in a week opening Tri-Valley Meet.

It was a senior night delight for numerous Indian and Tigers athletes as they held their annual Senior day festivities.

“It’s a fun time. I look forward to it. I work at Juniata. I know these kids. I’m just excited to see them all have strong performances. Have some friendly competition and gets some great times,” said East Juniata coach Johanna Towsey. “It was a good meet. I was glad we didn’t have run the other day in the weather. That had me concerned about potential injury so I’m glad we waited and got a perfect track day.”

The undefeated boys Juniata team remained undefeated as they defeated the Tigers in a 87-56 contest.

“I think we were all kind of itching to get out today. Last week was the first nice day we had,” said Juniata coach Maisie Hershberger. “We’ve only had two meets so far so this only our third meet. So we were just excited to just get out there today. But the weather has been taking a toll on us now that the weather caused us to cancel some of the meets we now are cramming meets together. So this week is going to be a little hectic for us.”

On the girls’ side, the Lady Tigers took home the victory winning, 79-61.

East Juniata was led by Addyson Feltman. Feltman finished with wins in both the 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles. She also took the top spot in the high jump, taking home three victories for her team.

Teammate Natalie Hoffman finished her afternoon sporting wins in the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash.

In the relays, the Lady Indians took the 3200-meter relay while the Tigers brought home wins in the 400-meter relay and the 1600-meter relays.

During the field events, East Juniata got a strong effort by Naomi Leitzel who placed top honors in the shots on shot put, the triple jump and then the discus to round out the EJ winners on the girls’ side.

Juniata was led by Sylvia Brubaker. Brubaker captured four victories on the night as she took home wins in the 1600-meter run, the 400-meter run, the 800-meter run and in the grueling 3200-meter run.

Also picking up wins for the Indians was Madison Copeland in long jump and Wagner in the javelin.

On the boys’ side, Wyatt Stroup took home the 3200-meter run. Stroup also ran in the following relay after the grueling 3200.

“It was a lot. You have to be fit,” Stroup said about the back-to back races. “I’ve been at 48 or 49 weeks a year for four years straight. So I’m pretty fit as well as my teammates on the 4×400 are. All of our cross country are too. We all go all year round. It’s difficult but we are all fit enough that we can do it.”

Juniata got a strong finish from its relay teams, sweeping the 3200, 1600 and 400.

The Indians also dominated the long distance events, sweeping the 800 and finishing top two in the 3200-meter and 1600-meter.

Placing in the field events for the Indians were Arthur Hazard (triple), Jasper Shepps (high jump), Connor Boreman (long jump) and Wyatt Ehrenzeller (javelin).

East Juniata got three second place finishes by Ayden Dowling (long jump, high jump and triple jump).

Rounding out the first place finishes was Shay Brininger (discus and shot put).