The Tyrone Golden Eagle Cross Country team split its first meet of the season at Juniata Valley on Wednesday, August 27, with the boys recording a dominating win, and the girls losing by just 11 points.

BOYS

The boys showed strong potential at this meet, with excellent times and several personal records, leading to a perfect score 15-46 win against Juniata Valley.

In cross country, scoring is different than many sports. Like golf, the lowest score wins, with each team earning one point for first, two for second, and so on.  A score of 15 is a perfect win.

In addition, Tyrone also showed some really strong times, with the top three almost all being under 19 minutes in the 5k, and the next two runners in the 20-minute range.

Senior Alex Brumbaugh dominated the competition, leading the race from the start. He held off everyone and ran a very quick 18:04, just missing sub 18, and winning the race by 40 seconds.

Following behind him were senior Nate (PR) Erickson and freshman Brenson Davis, who earned second and third. Erickson and Davis were with each other most of the race, and were very close near the end.

Erickson ran an 18:42, and Davis ran a 19:08.

Davis had just played a full soccer game the day before, so he is definitely capable of even faster times.

A third pack followed another minute after with freshman Jonah Wicker, sophomore Gavin Brasher, and a Juniata Valley runner, Caden Walters.

All three went down to the wire with a sprint finish, and it came down to the last second with Gavin getting 20:14, Jonah getting 20:15, with them both just barely holding off Walters, who ran 20:17, giving the team the perfect win with top five all from Tyrone.

Junior Eric Goodmen got eighth, and sophomore Brody Hoover got ninth, rounding out Tyrone’s top seven.

GIRLS

Like the boys, the girls also show some strong potential for this season. While they did not win this meet, they still had some decent times and have a lot of potential for future races.

Tyrone lost by a score of 33-22

Freshman Ella Savino had a strong first high school race, running a 24:03 and placing third just 9 seconds behind second place.

Sophomores Lily Ammerman and Kiana Gardner, and freshmen Hallie Troutman and Addison Davis all came in very close. Ammerman had 26:55, Gardner had 26:57, Troutman had 26:57, and Davis had 27:04. They got sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth.

Sophia Raneri and Laney Corl got 12th and 13th, rounding out Tyrone’s top seven.

JUNIOR HIGH

The team has had a lot of new athletes join the cross country team this season, so this race was for most of them their first. Junior high does a shorter distance of only 2 miles, rather than the full 5k.

Juniata Valley didn’t have a full Junior High team, so no scores were counted.

Junior High Boys

Jayden Savino finished in second place with a 15:44. Following close behind were Levi Latchford and Vinny Ammerman, who both ran a 16:08, and got third and fourth.

Ryan Linan just got under 17 minutes with a 16:58 and placed fifth.

Karter McGarvey, Dylan Brasher, and Darin Ferry came in not too far behind him, running 17:41, 17:53, and 18:11, getting sixth, seventh, and eighth

Ian Erickson finished Tyrone’s top seven, getting ninth.

Junior High Girls

The girls’ team only had three runners at this meet, but still had some good performances.

Harmony Dickson came in second for the girls, running an 18:06.

Aubree Gurekovich and Aubrey Balchin both came in around the same time, with Gurekovich getting third with 19:47, and Balchin getting fourth with 19:57.