Juniata’s Stroup and Brubaker end the Cross County Season with State Medals at the PIAA Championships. Boys Place 8th in the Team Standings

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: November 5, 2023

Courtesy of Shari Miller

Starting out the day for the Juniata Cross Country team was freshman Sylvia Brubaker in the AA girls race. Sylvia ran a brilliant race to get her first state medal in cross country by placing 25th with a time of 20:05. She was sitting in 31st place at the 1600 meter mark and gradually worked her way up to 22nd place by the 3200 meter mark. She lost a few places in the last 400 meters due to stomach issues, but was still able to hang on for 25th place and made all-state. The winner of the girls AA race was Baylee Espinosa from Lewisburg in a time of 18:48. Juniata Coach Jeff Miller said “I knew Sylvia was capable of a state medal if she didn’t let her nerves get to her. I thought she handled herself today like an experienced runner. She got out in a great position and slowly moved up throughout the race. Between my wife, teammates, and myself, we were able to let her know 5 or 6 times what position she was in. Sylvia is the first freshman to medal at the State Cross Country Championships in school history. She’s had an exceptional freshman season and will continue to get better with her hard work ethic. I’m looking forward to seeing what she can accomplish in track. She has speed and her endurance will continue to improve with more training miles and time in the sport.”

The Juniata boys team ran in the AA race several hours after Sylvia. District Champion Wyatt Stroup ran a well paced race to move up throughout the race to place 25th to make all-state and medal with a time of 16:54. Wyatt was in 37th place by the 1600 meter mark and moved up to 28th at the 3200 meter mark. He was able to move up from there to finish in medal position. Junior Joey Bomberger moved up from 55th place at the 1600 meter mark to 31st place by the 3200 meter mark. He moved up right beside Wyatt by the 4k mark, but couldn’t move up on the last hill on the course and finished in 29th place with a time of 17:02. Junior Wesley Ehrisman came in next for the Indians with a 105th place finish in a time of 18:03. Sophomore Levi Zeiders placed 156th with a time of 18:42. Freshman Coy Kerstetter placed 187th with a time of 19:04 to round out the scoring for the Indians. Junior Teagan Trout ran to a 217th place finish in a time of 19:41. Sophomore Ricky Guante placed 230th with a time of 19:55. The Juniata boys team moved up from 10th place last year to 8th place this year with 240 points. Hampton won the team title with 66 points. Ringgold’s Ryan Pajak won the boys race with a state record time of 15:21. Juniata Coach Jeff Miller said “The boys had another very good race today as a team. We just missed 7th place by 2 points. I told all the boys If we could be around 0:45 to 1:00 slower on this course compared to their district time, they would have a good day. Almost all of them accomplished this today. Wyatt worked hard for the last 3 seasons for his first state medal. Joey was so close, but I know he gave it all on the day. He has a lot to be proud of and will use this for motivation in track season and next year in cross country. Wesley had a solid race and has already set a goal of making top 25 next year. Levi ran well again today to help the team. Coy ran with determination to end a very successful freshman year and this season will only make him hungry to get better next year. Teagan ran very well on this difficult course to end his first year of cross country with a very positive experience. Ricky also ran a very well paced race today. We return all 9 boys on this team next year so the future is looking very good. Some of the runners have already set some big goals for next year. I’m super proud of everyone of them for how they performed on and off the cross country course. This season taught them how hard work and consistency can get them rewards like we experienced last week at districts and today.