The Juniata Cross Country (XC) team so far this fall season have had very strong showings with both the high school and middle school boys and girls teams. With the combination of runners from Juniata, East Juniata and now Juniata Christian School on the team, Juniata XC has seen some great growth including more runners being involved in the junior high program, as well. With the larger team numbers, Juniata has been able to compete with local schools such as Mifflin County and State College who have had junior high feeder programs for years now.
Leading the Indian boys’ team is junior Wyatt Stroup. Wyatt has placed 1st in line for the boys varsity team at all 3 big invites so far this season. Wyatt placed 2nd overall at the Big-Valley Invitational at the Indian Valley Elementary School in Reedsville, 4th at the Ben Bloser Invite at Big Springs High School, and 9th out of 277 AA runners at the Hershey Foundation Invitational just beside Hersheypark and the Giant Center.
Leading the Lady Indians this season is freshman Sylvia Brubaker. Sylvia placed 2nd overall at the Big-Valley Invitational and 3rd at Ben Bloser. She sadly didn’t have her best race on the Hershey course, placing 43rd overall, but showed tremendous grit to finish the race after some setbacks. Even though she didn’t have her best race, she still did phenomenally well for her first time at the difficult Hershey course. Regarding the Hershey meet in the rain & mud, teammate Stroup says, “That course can take runners 3-4 times to master, this was my 4th time at Hershey, and I’m just figuring that beast of a course out now… The crazy rain,wind,and mud also took a lot of courage for the team. I’m very proud of the team for not giving up and throwing in the towel but for looking at that course and having a mentality of smiling at the harsh conditions.” Their grit paid off as Juniata placed 7th as a team out of 40 AA schools!
The boys team overall has had some strong team performances at all the invitationals; they placed 2nd overall at Big Valley, 3rd at Ben Bloser, and 7th at Hershey. This is very impressive given that these invites can have anywhere from 20 to 40 teams competing for a constructor’s win. Losing their number one runner from last season, 2023 graduate Logan Strawser, has been tough mentally, but the team has stepped up to fill the varsity spots. Stroup comments, “Logan is one of my best friends and losing him as a teammate has been very hard and I’ve had to fill some very superior shoes, but this season has been fun and I’m happy to see what I, and this team on both boys and girls sides, can accomplish.”
Now you’re probably wondering, who is filling this strong team, coached by the super coach of Jeff Miller? On the boys side, it is Stroup, junior Joseph Bomberger, junior Wesley Ehrisman, sophomore Rickey Guante, sophomore Levi Zeiders, junior Teagan Trout, freshman Coy Kerstetter, junior Charlie Telfer, and freshman Joel Hardin. The girls side is filled with Bubaker, junior Jessie Bomberger, freshman Hannah Book, senior Haley Mummah, freshman Izabella Sanders, senior Aspen Eby, and freshman Jordana Steffen. Both Big Valley and Ben Bloser invites have had XC junior-high races where the Juniata junior-high team competed. The boys side consists of Josiah Barner, Sebastian Ehrisman, and Alejandro Guante. The girls side has Carolyn Heidenreich, Drue Hoffman, Ella Zimmerman, Morgan Ehrisman, Genesis Guante, and Mackenzie Wray. The junior high team has some rising stars in the sport! Barner medaled at Big-Valley and Heidenreich medaled at Ben Bloser. The season has been a fun one to say the least, with more greatness to happen. The high school Indians travel to Paul Short this Saturday to compete on the fast, prestigious course at Lehigh University, and the junior-high team has the middle school championships coming up in a few weeks. A little closer to home, our only home meet at the East Juniata course will be Tuesday, October 11th after school for the TVL championship meet. Come check out Juniata XC!
Wyatt Stroup with his 9th place medal at Hershey Foundation.
The medalists at the Ben Bloser invite
Names L-R, Carolyn Heidenreich, Joseph Bomberger, Wyatt Stroup, Sylvia Burbaker, and Wesley Ehrisman.