REEDSVILLE — It’s been an institution since 1974. The Big Valley Invitational Cross Country meet has been a staple in the Mifflin County area for 50 years.
It’s also the place where many schools can measure how the preseason workouts have gone and what they need to work on going forward.
The list of this year’s competitors is long and distinguished. This season the teams competing in the meet were Mifflin County, Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte, Newport, Altoona, State College, Williamsport, Red Land, Hollidaysburg, Forrest Hills and many more.
Despite wet and damp weather, the Red Raiders and Bald Eagle runners made the most of the opening event.
“We had a total of five medals brought back to Bellefonte, along with many very impressive performances to start off the season,” Bellefonte coach Chad Wiler said. “We have some good fast runners on our squad this year. This is only the beginning for our teams.”
On the girls side, the Lady Raiders blazed their way to a third-place finish in 2A competition. Competing in all three classes, the Bellefonte crew finished eighth overall.
The medal winner was Natalie Jolley with a time of 20:56. She placed sixth in 2A.
Teammate Addison Fry also brought home a medal and finished in seventh with a time of 21:07.
Rounding out the girls team for the first invite of the season were Emma Burger, who placed 25th, and Anna Tyson, who captured 26th. Ruthann Smoyer continued things with a 33rd place and Alexis Fravel tallied a 34th place spot.
“Our girls’ team had the start they needed to kick off the season,” Wiler said. “Excited to see them continue to build off of what they ran today.”
It was just as good of a finish for the varsity boys team as they battled and placed fourth in 2A competition and eighth overall in all three classes.
Kaiden Williams and Jonathan Gasper came home with some hardware at the Big Valley Invite.
In 2A action, Williams placed 11th with a time of 17:50 and Gasper placed 14th with a time of 18:02. Maverick Muchmore placed 17th with a time of 18:19 on the fast course.
Elijah Davis placed 37th and Kaiden Musser placed 72nd.
“It’s a smaller boys team this year, but we have some strong runners who want to be some of the best in District 6,” Wiler said.
For the Bald Eagle Area runners, it was quite a homecoming as the team returned after years of not competing in the BVI.
“BEA was excited to return to the Big Valley Invitational this year, and it proved to be a great experience for both our veteran and new members,” Bald Eagle coach Marci McGonigal said.
Freshman Caylynn Dixson had a stand-out performance, earning 11th place in the 2A varsity race. Multisport athletes Heidi Eveleth, Owen Dechow, Alec Wagner and Blake Wagner were also among the top finishers for BEA varsity.
Next up for the Bellefonte cross country teams was their first conference meet of the season, at home at Governors Park on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
