University Park — The Clearfield Bison boys and girls cross country teams competed on Saturday at the rugged Haryy Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational on the Penn State University Park campus.
As in all previous races this year, the Bison were led by the freshman duo of Paige Mikesell and Alex Coval. Mikesell finished with a time of 20:09 to finish 22nd overall. Coval ran an 18:16 to finish 64th.
Ridgewood won the girl’s title after being paced by the individual titlist, Carleen Jeffers in 19:04.
Carlisle and University tied for the boy’s team title, while South Williamsport’s Griffin Molino won the race in 15:43.
Head coach John Jacob was pleased with his team’s results, stating, “Freshman Paige Mikesell had the race of the day as she was able to come away with a top 25 finish. She took a very aggressive pace at the beginning and was just outside the top 40 runners in the field. Over the last mile and up the final hill, Paige put on a surge and was able to pass several runners to come away with her best time of the season. Her time of 20:09 puts her at the top of the Mountain League and in the district. Claire Mikesell also had her best time of the season. She had a different approach to the course as she ran the first half of the race more conservative, and was able to build her pace as she just missed finishing outside the top 50 runners. Both runners are going to be hard to beat as the season goes on and they continue to improve. Kristi Fox and Nikol Chew were next across the line with both runners coming in under 24 minutes and their fastest times of the season. Emily Aveni rounded out the top-5 runners and also finished with her fastest time of the season.”
The boys performed just as well, “On the boys side, freshman Alex Coval just missed breaking the 18 minute barrier with his fastest time of the season. Alex is really starting to make some big improvement as the season goes on and this race showed him that he has the ability to stay with some of the top runners in our league. Josiah McClarren, Harry McMillen and Grant Climie all came in under 20 min. Over the past couple of seasons we were lucky to have one or two runners that could run under 20 minutes, but with our top-4 runners being able to run that fast and with several more very close we are going to be a solid team. Brandon Lacock, Mike Hadden and Thayne Morgan were also able to come away with their season-best times.”
The Bison will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Penns Valley.
Complete results of the Spiked Shoe can be found here.
