Courtesy of Neil Breneman

CARLISLE – The Mifflin County Girls Cross Country team was chewing up time at the Carlisle Invitational on Saturday, September 24. There were 13 girls that ran today and all but one accomplished their season best times. Seven of them walked away with career personal records.

“I knew it would be a fast course and the weather conditions were nearly perfect,” said MIfflin County coach Neil Breneman.

The JV girls got to run first on the day at 53 degrees.

By the noon race for Varsity girls, it was still a nice 62 degrees. Combine all of that with great course conditions and a group of young women that are hungry to improve their times, the magic begins to happen! Cumulatively they chewed up 18 minutes from their season best times.

The JV girls set the bar high when the top three each finished under 26 minutes. The amount of time they erased from their previous PR’s (time they beat their PR in parenthesis) is motivating them and gives them incredible confidence as we move toward championship season. They are seeing the results of their hard training over the past month. Ava Kratzer (freshman) crossed first at 25:37 (-1:52), followed closely by Kennadi Bauman (junior), 25:44 (-1:53) and Caroline Palopoli (freshman), 25:48 (-1:54). The biggest improvement of the day came from Maya Morgan (freshman) when she eliminated 3.5 minutes from her PR coming in at 28:31.

In the Varsity girls race, Addie Parson (20:36) and Adeline Leason (20:44) are both moving close to their PR times from a previous season. They are strengthening our team up front which is necessary to compete against the really good teams we face in the remaining part of our season. Amilia Coffey is closing in with them as she posted her best time today at 21:48.

“Amilia is a hard worker and very determined. I know I can count on her to continue working hard and closing the gap.,” said Breneman. “The final two scorers were Justice Sheaffer (22:40) and Alexis Anderson (24:55) who also had great days raising the strength in the “back”. Alexis is balancing playing field hockey and running cross country and has still managed to excel in her times. Although that kind of schedule is challenging she is stepping up and showing improvement.”

The team will travel right back to Carlisle on Tuesday, September 27 as they square off against Carlisle and Cumberland Valley.