Spring Mills — The Clearfield Area High School cross country teams raced in to the post season on Wednesday at the Mountain League Championship meet at Penns Valley High School.
The host Rams and Lady Rams were able to claim both the boys and girls team titles and have the individual champion in each race as well.
The Clearfield girls finished in the runner-up spot, while the Clearfield boys managed a third place finish.
Top finisher for Clearfield was freshman Paige Mikesell who finished second overall, with a time of 21:17, to Penns Valley’s Alyssa Limbaugh who completed the course in 20:59.
Clearfield’s Kristi Fox finished in the top-10 with her eighth place time of 23:11. Teammate Nikol Chew finished just outside the top-10, in 11th, with a time of 23:58.
On the boy’s side, Clearfield freshmen Alex Coval placed eighth in 18:47, and Harry McMillen was 11th in 19:24. Penns Valley had the top-3 finishers, led by Chris Colwell’s 17:52.
Two other Bison runners completed the course in under 20 minutes – Josiah McClarren in 19:38 to finish 16th and Grant Climie placed 18th with his 19:53.
Bison head coach John Jacob summed up the first post-season race this way, ” We didn’t have the best meet of the season today. I think the kids let the weather and the competition affect their race a little too much. On the up side we placed in the meet the same way we placed during the regular season. At this point in the season we were hoping to have some better times. Hopefully with a full week of practice, the kids will get some much needed rest and be ready to run at the District Championships next Saturday. (October 25)Â For the girls, the order of finish was the same with Paige Mikesell leading the way. She was able to keep the race for the championship close; but Alyssa Limbaugh from Penns Valley was just a little too strong to overtake for the win. Kristi Fox was next across the line to finish 8th overall. She was able to make her way from back in the pack and pace herself to come away with her top-10 finish. For the boys Alex Coval was the first to cross the line for us. His race started out a little slow, but he was able to capitalize on the slow start and work his way from deep in the pack to finish inside the top ten. Freshman Harry McMillen was second and just missed a top ten finish. Harry has been one of the most consistent runners this season. Hopefully the District 9 Championship can be Harry’s breakout race of the season.”
