Indian runners top PO and St. Joes in Cross country action

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: October 12, 2018

For the second time in two days Juniata Cross Country team pulled off an excellent race by winning the meet with St. Josephs, West Branch, and Philipsburg-Osceola. Coach Jeff Miller said “They worked together as a team and got the job done. Everyone of them ran their hearts out especially after running such a difficult course on Tuesday at Susquenita. We knew going into this one we would be in the same situation as Tuesday. It was going to be a close meet and we needed our four and five runners to pull through. The kids came away from this meet feeling good about themselves.” Juniata’s Garrett Baublitz won the race in 16:30. Miller was amazed that Baublitz was able to run a 4:59 for the last mile on that hilly course. “He walked away from this one with a lot more confidence.” Isaak Fausey has been coming on strong in the late season. “Isaak is running over two minutes faster than he did back in early September and he had a PR today.” Miller said. After Garrett, St. Josephs’ Carter Kauffman and Josh Hershbine took 2nd and 3rd place. Shortly after it was all Juniata with Clay Yeager taking 4th – 18:39, Albert Heister 5th – 18:40, Isaak Fausey 6st – 19:18, James Hazard 7th – 19:18, Brody Powell 8th – 19:40, and Zeb Ames 9th – 19:40. Other finishers were Yadiel Nieves-Aguirre 13th – 20:24, Micah Fausey 16th – 21:06, Noah Sheaffer 27th – 25:25 and Kaleb Louder 28th – 29:52.

Team scores

Juniata – 23

St. Josephs – 38

Juniata – 15

West Branch – 50

Juniata – 15

Philisburg-Osceola – 50

On the girls side Sera Mazza won the race in a time of 19:55 and St. Josephs won the team title. Juniata’s Emily Houtz placed 4th overall with a time of 23:09 and Katrina Weber was 24th in 34:00. “It was nice to see Katrina run a personal best for the season. She works so hard”. Miller said. Juniata did not have the necessary runners to compete in the team category. Juniata will head to Reedsville on Thursday, October 18 to compete against Mifflin County, Susquenita, and Newport