Courtesy of Shari Miller

REEDSVILLE- Juniata had a great day in Reedsville for the District 6 Cross Country Championship on Saturday, October 26.  In the girls AA race, sophomore Sylvia Brubaker took charge of the race from the gun and took the win in a time of 19:07.2 to repeat as District Champion for the second year in a row.  Freshman Carolyn Heidenreich just missed making it to states with a 12th place finish overall with a time of 21:03.9.  Sophomore Hannah Book was next for the Indians in 29th place with a time of 24:31.9.  Freshman Hannah Zeiders placed 32nd with a time of 24:57.6 and senior Jessie Bomberger rounded out the scoring with a 51st place finish in a time of 29:13.1.  Central Cambria won the girls team title with 23 points while Juniata was 4th with 118 points.  Sylvia will be making her second trip to the PIAA State Cross Country Championships next weekend in Hershey.

“Sylvia ran with confidence today after running a 18:32 on this course last week against Mifflin County,” said Juniata Coach Jeff Miller. “Carolyn just missed making it to states by 0:07, but ran her heart out to run a personal best and I’m super proud of her. Hannah Zeiders got sick this week or would have been in contention of making it to states.  She did what she could for the day.  Hannah Book ran determined today to end her season with a season best.  Jessie was hurt all season and lost so much fitness.  I was just glad she could end her high school cross country career by running today.”

In the boys AA race, senior Wyatt Stroup took charge of the race from the gun to win his second District Title in two years with a time of 16:08.  Juniata has crowned a boys individual District Champ for eight out of the last nine years.  Senior Joey Bomberger wasn’t far behind in 2nd place overall with a time of 16:20.9.  Senior Wesley Ehrisman ran a personal best time of 17:02.8 to get 9th overall to make the podium with Wyatt and Joey.  Sophomore Coy Kerstetter ran a tough race to place 14th with a new personal best time of 17:50.2.  Senior Teagan Trout rounded out the scoring with a gutsy race to place 18th with a new personal best time of 18:10.4.  Freshman Joseiah Barner placed 25th with a personal best time of 18:44 and junior Kade Wagner was 26th with a time of 18:56.2.  Juniata won the District Title for the 3rd year in a row just beating Central Cambria 40 to 41.  Central Cambria has won the boys District Title the last 10 years in a row, but was in the A division the last two years so Juniata didn’t compete against them since 2021.

“It was a total team effort today.  If one of our runners didn’t give it their best, we wouldn’t be sending a boys team to Hershey for the State Championships for the 3rd year in a row,” said Miller. “The team scoring was so close we weren’t confident we had won for a good hour after the boys AA race when the results became official.  With 4 out of our top 5 runners being seniors, we had to get this team to states one more time.  I was pretty confident Wyatt and Joey would get 1st and 2nd, but wasn’t exactly sure what place Wesley, Coy, and Teagan would get.  They had me worried by the mile mark with their fast splits, but they never gave up and made every place count.  Cross country can be more of an individual sport, but today the boys pushed a little harder knowing how much the team was counting on them.  That was the difference in the end and Shari and I are so proud of how they raced today and kept focused throughout the season when the odds were against us.  This will be a day they will never forget.”

Juniata had 3 boys competing in the JV District Championship race.  Freshman David Mayall-Marker led the Indians with a 7th place finish in a new personal best time of 19:50.5 to make the podium.  Sophomore Joel Hardin was next with a personal best time of 20:14.9 to place 8th.  Senior Luke Fowler was 10th with a personal best time of 21:13.5.

“David ran a well executed race today.  He has improved so much from the beginning of the season and will be a huge asset to the team next year.  I was very happy for Joel to run a personal best today,” said Miller. “He puts in the time and enjoys the process of becoming a better runner.  He will also be returning next year to be a big help to the team.  This was Luke’s first year of cross country and he did great.  He’s super reliable and works so hard everyday.  Like me, we both didn’t do cross country until our senior year of high school and will always wonder what we could have done if we started earlier.  I’m just glad he got to experience this awesome sport.”

Juniata will be competing at the PIAA State Cross Country Championship in Hershey on Saturday, November 2.