By Kenny Varner

REEDSVILLE- It’s been an institution since 1974.

The Big Valley Invitational Cross Country meet has been a staple in the Mifflin County area for 50 years.

Located in Reedsville, the Inviational has been the site of numerous runners who eventually won District titles and State Titles.

It’s also the place where many school’s can measure how the preseason workouts have went and what they need to work on going forward.

The list of this year’s competitors are long and distinguished. This season the teams competing in the meet were MIfflin County, Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte, Newport, Altoona, State College, Williamsport, Red Land, Hollidaysburg, Forrest Hills and many more.

Despite wet and damp weather conditions, the Red Raiders and Bald Eagle runners made the most of the opening event.

“We had a total of five medals brought back to Bellefonte along with many very impressive performances to start off the season,” said Bellefonte coach Chad Wiler. “We have some good fast runners on our squad this year. This is only the beginning for our teams.”

On the girls side, the Lady Raiders blazed their way to a  3rd place finish in AA competition. Competing in all three classes, the Bellefonte crew finished 8th overall.

Medal winners was Natalie Jolley with a time of 20:56. She placed 6th in AA.

Teammate Addison Fry also brought home a medal and finished in 7th with a time of 21:07.

Rounding out the girls team for the first invite of the season were Emma Burger as she placed 25th and Anna Tyson placed who captured 26th. Ruthann Smoyer continued things with a 33rd place and Alexis Fravel tallied a 34th place spot.

“Our girls team had the start they needed to kick off the season,” said Wiler.”Excited to see them continue to build off of what they ran today.”

It was just as good of a finish for the

Varsity Boys team as they battled and placed 4th in AA competition and 8th overall in all three classes.

Kaiden Williams and Jonanthan Gasper came home with some hardware at the Big Valley Invite.

In AA action,  Williams placed 11th with a time of 17:50 and Gasper placed 14th with a time of 18:02. Maverick Muchmore placed 17th with a time of 18:19 on the fast course.

Elijah Davis placed 37th and Kaiden Musser placed 72nd.

“It’s a smaller boys team this year, but we have some strong runners who want to be some of the best in District 6,” said Wiler.

The Bellefonte Junior High team also had some good starts to the season. For many of the junior high team, it was their first cross country race. For the boys, Gunther Kull placed 4th in the field earning himself a medal. Bowen Williams placed 15th, Ethan Karmelita 28th, Braeden Strohm 37th and Hyrum Jones 54th.

For the girls, Bellefonte’s lead finisher was Alissa Kyte-Yech placing 42nd. Teammates Emily Moretz placed 66th and Kathryn Spotts placed 70th. Haddie Lutz ran to a 71st place finish followed by teammates Megan Showers 72nd and Molly Showers in 80th.

For the Bald Eagle Area runners it was quite a homecoming as the team returned after years of not competing in the BVI.

“BEA was excited to return to the Big Valley Invitational this year, and it proved to be a great experience for both our veteran and new members!,” said Bald Eagle coach Marci McGonigal. Freshman, Caylynn Dixson, had a stand out performance earning 11th place in the AA Varsity Race.  Multisport athletes, Heidi Eveleth, Owen Dechow, Alec Wagner, and Blake Wagner were also among the top finishers for BEA Varsity.

“We were pleased to have participants in the JV races as well, with Maksim Shapich and Sydney Bender leading the boys and girls team respectively,” said McGonigal.

Next up for the Bellefonte cross country teams is their first conference meet of the season at home at Governors Park on Wednesday September 4th .