Juniata’s Strawser Runs a Brilliant Race to get 7th at the Pennsylvania State Cross Country Championships

By Kenny Varner Jr.
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: November 6, 2021

Courtesy of Shari Miller

Junior Logan Strawser placed 7th in the PIAA State Cross Country Championships in the AA Division. Logan positioned himself well early into the 3.1 mile challenging course staying in the top 20 runners by the 1k mark. By 1600 meters, he moved up to 14th. He continued to pick off runners moving up to 10th place by the halfway point (1.55 miles). At the 3200 mark he moved himself up to 8th. Shortly after he moved up to 7th place, but trailed the 6th position runner by 30 meters. He held his position over the last 1k, but got passed in the final 150 meters to move back to 8th. Logan came back to pass that same runner in the last 40 meters to reclaim 7th overall in a time of 16:39 in the 236 runner field.

Gary Martin from Archbishop Wood won the race in a time of 15:46.7. Juniata coach Jeff Miller said “Logan ran one heck of a race. To run the way he did today in his first year of cross country is amazing. This course is very difficult and takes many times running it to figure it out. Logan only ran the course once before at the Hershey Foundation Invitational 6 weeks ago. He did not have a good race there. Running a time of 17:52. Early into the season, Logan had to take some time off because of a hip injury. He struggled for several weeks to regain his fitness, but he never gave up. By the time we competed against Mifflin County two weeks ago, Logan had regained his fitness that he lost and was running stronger than ever. He showed that by winning his first District 6 Championship title one week ago today. The key to his success was the summer training he put in. He biked over 700 miles this summer and ran close to 250 miles. Logan is a very reliable, hard working, tough kid that learns quickly. He gives me great feedback on how he is feeling and enjoys the process finding out just how good he can get. I just started working with him about 1 year ago and after three weeks of running with him it was obvious to me he had a gift he needed to explore in cross country running. He spent his freshman and sophomore year’s playing soccer. It was not a easy decision for him to switch over to cross country, but I’m so thankful that he did. I told him at Thanksgiving last year if he trained as a full time runner, he could be in the top 10 at this years state cross country championships. He topped that with his 7th place finish today. I can’t be happier for him. He’s given me 100% dedication and deserves this great accomplishment.”