Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis participated in the Mountain Athletic Conference Meet on Wednesday at the Indian Valley Middle School course.
The Bellwood-Antis boys won their division for the second straight year and Aaron Houck and Emily Ingle placed well for the Tyrone teams.
Emily Ingle finished fourth overall and first in the Division 3 race with a time of 20:53 to pace all area runners. The Tyrone girls finished third in Division 3, with Penns Valley winning the division with 112 point, followed by Philipsburg-Osceola with 212 and Tyrone third.
Francesca Lambert was the second Lady Eagle finishing 15th in the division in 27:53, followed by Amber Davis (17th), Paige Black (18th) and Salena Bradigan (19th)
“Emily Ingle placed fourth overall, but first in our division,” said Tyrone coach Tammy Wills. “She ran a tough race and I think she knows today what she needs to do going into districts next week. I am very pleased with Francisca Lambert, Paige Black and Salena Bradigan did well. They have been fighting some injuries this season, but I think we’re getting through that. Amber Davis did an awesome job today. She really stepped up and I was pleased with her race and finish.”
In winning the Division 4 title, the B-A boys were able to bunch together with all five scorers finishing in the top 10. Josh Ervine was third in the division in 18:57, followed closely by Eli Colyer in fourth place in 19:00. Brandon Beech was seventh in 19:45 and Jamey Rimmey in eighth place was so close, he was timed in the same 19:45. Ronnie Wilson was the fifth B-A runner in 10th place in the division in 20:07.
Bellwood-Antis was first in Division 4 with 230 points, followed by BG with 234, West Branch with 307, Juniata Valley with 392 and Mount Union with 416.
Liam Flynn was 14th, and Talon Sickler was 23rd for the Blue Devils.
“Our boys tried to go after Bishop Guilfoyle,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach Julia Roseborough. When we ran them in the dual meet, the guys didn’t think they did their best, but today when the title was on the line, they ran like they are capable of running. It was a real good win. We were grouped very closely, that helped with the scoring and just in case we had the tie breaker. Our sixth runner, Liam Flynn was 10 places ahead of theirs, even though we it turned out we didn’t need the tiebreaker after all. Josh Ervine has really been running well and Ronnie Wilson has come a long way this year for us. Eli and Jamey have been very consistent for us all season.”
The Tyrone boys were led by Aaron Houck who was 16th overall, and second in the Division 3 race in 17:54 to Seth Lynch of Penns Valley. Chris Bradigan was second for the Eagles in 18:56, good for a ninth place finish in the division. Philip Kreckle was 14th in 19:59, Bradley McNeal was 16th in 20:12 and Eric Sweet was 17th in 20:12.
Other runners for the Golden Eagles included Dustin Elder (18th) and Sam McCloskey (20th).
“I am very pleased with how the boys ran. They ran well and several had personal records,” said coach Wills. “Aaron Houck ran his best race ever, taking 16th overall and second in the division, to earn a medal. Chris Bradigan ran a tough race and Philip Kreckle really stepped things up, running a very hard, very focused race. So did Bradley McNeal and Dustin Elder, who are all proving themselves to be super runners. Dustin and Eric Sweet battled each other the whole race and ended up finishing together. Eric ran well, but has been battling illness. We hope to have him healthy for districts next week. Sam McCloskey was the seventh runner, and he had a great race with a hard finish.
“Our junior varsity boys, Caleb Dillon, Jake Smerekar and Randy Wilson did outstanding jobs. Each of them had his best time ever. Randy Wilson, was out much of the season with an injury, but came back strong, taking a huge chunk off his time.”
Tyrone finished third in the team race with 326 points. Penns Valley had 112 to win the Division 3 race and Philipsburg-Osceola had 212.
Sarah Bell finished second in the girls Division 4 race in 22:44, followed by Kelly Killinger (13th in 25:33), Becca Colyer (14th in 25:45), Emily O’Shea (16th in 26:42 and Brittany Webb (17th in 27:07).
“Our girls did pretty good,” said Roseborough. “West Branch kind of snuck up on Juniata Valley to win the division. (West Branch had 226 points to 234 for Juniata Valley, 246 for BG, 268 for Bellwood-Antis, and 412 for Mount Union) Our top three girls all were in the 25s. This was a good experience with most of our girls back next year, this will give us something good to build on.”
