Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis hooked up with Bishop Guilfoyle in a cross country match on Tuesday at Tyrone in an important Mountain Athletic Conference meet.
The Bishop Guilfoyle boys defeated Tyrone 24-32 and Bellwood-Antis 23-34 to take over first place from the Blue Devils in the MAC. The Tyrone boys suffered their first loss of the season to BG, but defeated B-A in a tight race 26-30 to improve to 6-1.
Chris Brown (18:42) of Bishop Guilfoyle was the top finisher in the boys race, but Tyrone’s Aaron Houck (19:02) AND Chris Bradigan (19:39) were right behind in second and third. Eli Colyer (20:02) and Josh Ervine (20:06), both from Bellwood-Antis finished fourth and fifth, but BG had the next three runners. Tyrone’s Eric Sweet (20:31) rounded out the top 10.
In the head-to-head race against BG, Tyrone added Dustin Elder (20:49) and Bradley McNeal (21:17) who finished ninth and 11th respectively, while the Marauders used five runners in the top eight for the victory.
Against the Blue Devils (3-3), Houck and Bradigan finished first and second, Sweet was fifth, Elder seventh and McNeal 11th, to combat the B-A runners (Colyer-third, Ervine-fourth, Ronnie Wilson-sixth, Liam Flynn (eighth, and Brandon Beech (ninth)) to hold on to a four-point win.
“Our boys all ran very aggressive races against two tough teams,” said Tyrone coach Tammy Wills. “I was very happy with all of them. This was a good chance to look towards the up-coming weeks and see where we need to be and what we need to work on and push towards to get us where we need to be.”
Other runners for the Golden Eagles included Phil Kreckle (19th overall), Sam McCloskey (20th), Jonathan Bishop (31st), Jake Smerekar (38th, and Caleb Dillon (41st). Other Bellwood-Antis runners included Jamey Rimmey (16th), Talon Sickler (21st), Corey Miller (22nd), Dustin Harris (23rd), Garrett Wyland (24th), Tyler Elvey (26th), Brad Rydbom (28th), Josh Hanna (29th), John Wolfe (33rd), Tyler Hunter (34th), Troy Byers (36th), Josh Keagy (37th), Josh Rimmey (39th), Jordan Miller (40th), Ryan Wolfe (42nd) and Don Partner (43rd).
“We knew it would be close for the boys,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach Julia Roseborough. “We had to have everybody do the best they are capable of. Our top runner got knocked down early and had trouble with asthma all afternoon. Another of our better guys had trouble on the hills with shin splints. Give credit to Tyrone and BG, I was impressed with the way both teams ran. But for us our problems took us out of any chance we might have had. Eli and Josh ran very well and Ronnie Wilson had never done as well as he did today. Liam Flynn picked it up as well today on a tough race course. We knew we didn’t have much chance to beat BG’s top runner and the top two from Tyrone, but thought if we could follow those runners and stay together, we had the opportunity. “
In the girls race, BG’s Dani Williams pulled out the overall win with a time of 21:23, followed by Tyrone senior Emily Ingle (21:50), and the Bellwood-Antis trio of Sarah Bell (25:30), Kelly Killinger (26:03) and Emily O’Shea (26:18).
Franscesca Lambert was the second Tyrone girl, sixth in 27:13, followed by Becca Colyer of B-A (27:21), BG’s Jaci Hall (28:05), Amanda Houtz of B-A (29:00), the Marauders Maria Fusco (29:22) to round out the top 10.
In the team races, Bellwood-Antis (3-3) defeated Tyrone 22-38 and BG 15-50, while Tyrone (2-5) defeated BG 15-50 with the Lady Marauders unable to field five scorers.
“I was very pleased with all of our girls today,” said Wills. “Our course is one of the toughest around and they ran it hard and we all focused. We had a full team, which allowed us to score.”
In the race between the two local schools, Ingle won the race, but the Lady Blue Devils placed five girls in the top seven for the win. Bell was second, Killinger third, O’Shea fourth, Colyer sixth, and Houtz seventh. Lambert was fifth for the Lady Eagles, Paige Black (30:06) was ninth, Amber Davis (32:37) 11th and Salena Bradigan (32:53) was 12th.
Other runners for the Blue Devils were Heather Benson (13th overall), Nicole Post (14th), Andrea Isola (15th) and Amanda Mills (18th).
“I was really pleased with all the girls today,” said Roseborough. Kelly and Emily are both freshmen who have come a long way from where they started just a short time ago. Sarah is a steady influence, its nice to know we can depend on her. Becca and Amanda also have been steady all year.”
Tyrone will host a meet with Juniata Valley and Penns Valley on Tuesday, while Bellwood-Antis will host West Branch and Philipsburg-Osceola, with both races beginning at 4 p.m.
