Clearfield Cross Country Teams Open Season at Big Valley Invite

LEWISTOWN — Both the Clearfield Area High School boy’s and girl’s cross country teams opened the 2011 running season at the Big Valley Invite hosted by Mifflin County High School on Saturday.

The girl’s team placed 19th out of 25 total schools with senior Juliana Melgard their top finisher in the 48th spot with a time of 23:23.

The boy’s team finished 30th out of 31 teams with freshman Jonathan Sponsler crossing the line first for Clearfield in 86th place with a time of 19:40.

Head coach John Jacob was pleased that alot of first year Bison runners got to compete for the first time, “It was a good opening day for both teams highlighted by some of our younger runners.”

Coach Jacob singled out those competing in their first varsity races, “The biggest surprise on the day was two of our freshman runners, Emily Aveni and Kristi Fox, that both used different race strategies to turn in strong performances in their first race. Both (Clearfield assisstant) Coach Winters and myself kept watching the two freshmen pass runners late in the race and were very pleased with how they handled the pressure of their first race. With only Morgen (Turner) and Juliana with race experience the younger runners used the race as a learning experience. Other runners competing in their first race were Colleen Mulhollan, Kaylee Mulhollan, Sarah Lash, Courtney Smith and Leann Cowder.”

Despite the low placing for the boy’s squad, Coach Jacob handed out the praise for his youngsters there also, noting that, “Freshman Jon Sponsler was our top runner today. Jon had a very nice run and was able to run under 20 min. It took some of our runners in the past almost two years to run in the 19’s but Jon was able to do it in his first varsity race. Vince Kovach, Kyle Thompson and Matt Bell finished close to their season bests from last season. It was good to see these three runners pick up so close to where they left off last season. While Kenton Clime, Matt McKenzie and Jacob Ryan all competed in their first cross country race and managed to come away with some very respectable times.”

The overall top finisher for the girls was a District 9 runner – Elk County Catholic sophomore Weisner Kennedy who ran an 18:39. The boy’s gold medalist was State College’s Dylan Mountain who ran a 16:35.

Complete race results can be found here for the girls – http://www.runhigh.com/2011RESULTS/R090311AH.HTML, and here for the boys – http://www.runhigh.com/2011RESULTS/R090311AD.HTML.

Clearfield will start their dual meet season on Thursday when they host Mountain League foe Central Mountain.