REEDSVILLE – This season, one of the cross country teams to watch is the fully loaded squad of Mifflin County.

Led by Husky phenom Carter Smith, the Mifflin County runners are fully loaded with returning letter winners.

Saturday the Huskies opened their regular season in its traditional way, competing the legendary Big Valley Invitational.

Once again, Smith blew away the competition as he took home top honors as well as the gold medal with a staggering time of 15:36.

Three other of his teammates finished in the top 10.

Reese Cubbison finished in fifth place with a finishing time of 15:54.

Following Cubbison was Hoyt Rodenbaugh who blazed his way to a sixth place time of 16:03.

Rounding out the top 10 finishers for the Huskies was Wyatt Kauffman who finished ninth with a mark of 16:20.

With their finishes on the day, the group almost caught State College, their arch rival.

“Our varsity boys fell to defending state champions State College by 3 points,” said Mifflin County coach Alex Monroe. “I’m really proud of everyone’s opener today. It obviously stings to miss a win at home by 3 points, but as a program we didn’t have any bad performances.”

“Momentum at this stage is crucial, and so we will try and reset and see how we can gain more of it in the coming weeks. If you go back and look at last year’s results, what we did today was unbelievable. But the boys know the work is far from over and we need A+ days in October. I had standout races from Reese Cubbison, Hoyt Rodenbaugh, Connor Lynch, Zaiden Dashem, Logan Breneman, Anthony Palopoli, and Eli Galbraith.”

In JV competition, the Huskies were led by Aidan Scavitti who finished with a time of 17:38.

Following behind Scavitti was Connor Lynch who topped out at 18:01.

Zaiden Dashem rounded out the top three MIfflin County JV boys runner posting a time of 18:13.

The Huskies return to competition Tuesday at home against Cumberland Valley.