Running in extremely tough competition, the Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis cross country teams participated in the District VI Meet at the Indian Valley Middle School course at Reedsville on Saturday.
Emily Ingle, who finished sixth overall was the only local runner to qualify for the PIAA State Meet which will be held next Saturday in Hershey. Ingle, a senior at Tyrone, finished the course in 20:15.
Carly Seymour a sophomore from Central Cambria, crushed the old record of 18:51, with her winning time of 18:04. Sarah Strayer of Forest Hills was second in 19:26, Central Cambria’s Annie Cekada was third in 19:34, Shannon Yingling of Bishop McCort was fourth in 19:41 and Central Cambria’s third runner, Sara Hand was fifth in 20:07.
Francesca Lambert finished 113th for the Lady Eagles, Paige Black was 18th and Amber Davis was 122nd.
“Emily did a fantastic job today,” said Tyrone cross country coach Tammy Wills. “She knew what she wanted and went out and ran a very determined, very strong, hard race.”
Tyrone had only four runners in the girls race and did not score as a team. Bellwood-Antis was 17th in the girls race out of 23 schools.
Bellwood-Antis junior Sarah Bell finished in 21st place in 21:46, Becca Colyer was 103rd, Kelly Killinger was 106th, Amanda Houtz was 108th, Brittany Webb was 110th and Heather Benson was 115th for the Lady Blue Devils.
“Sarah Bell ran a really good race,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Julia Roseborough. “They take the top 10 runners who aren’t a member of the top two teams and Sarah was 12th. A number of the girls ran personal bests.”
Central Cambria, who won the District race and Bishop McCort will send their teams to Hershey.
In the boys race, Aaron Houck finished 20th in 17:47 to lead the Tyrone Golden Eagles to a ninth place overall out of 23 schools.
Chris Bradigan was 44th in 18:52, Bradley McNeal was 64th in 19:22, Philip Kreckle was 70th in 19:31 and Dustin Elder was 82nd in 19:46.
Other Tyrone runners included: Sam McCloskey (95th) and Eric Sweet (100th).
“The boys did great today,” said Wills. “They all had really good times and we had many (personal records). The boys really came together as a team. Aaron was our first runner and he ran his best race ever. Unfortunately, he just missed qualifying for states. But he should still be proud of his performance, as should all of our kids (both boys and girls). They all had a great season.”
For the B-A boys, who finished 17th overall, junior Jamey Rimmey was first across the finish line in 19:07, followed by Brandon Beech (60th in 19:15), Liam Flynn (94th in 20:15), Eli Colyer (98th in 20:22) and Josh Ervine (106th in 20:36).
Other Blue Devil runners included: Ronnie Wilson (107th), and Dustin Harris (118th).
“Our boys weren’t consistent throughout the lineup,” said Roseborough. “Some of them had personal bests, but some didn’t run as well as they have during the season.”
Travis Dean of Westmont-Hilltop was the top boys’ runner finishing in 16:17, Shane Simmons of Central Cambria was second in 16:52, Bishop McCort’s Mitch Rosko was third in 17:06, Nathan Brown of team champion Penns Valley was fourth in 17:16, and Mike Garver of Bishop McCort was fifth in 17:19. Penns Valley and Central Cambria qualified for the PIAA meet as teams.
