Juniata’s Stroup and East Juniata’s Strawser compete at State College #2 Indoor Track Meet

Courtesy of Shari Miller

Juniata freshman Wyatt Stroup and East Juniata junior Logan Strawser competed in the 3,000 meter race on Thursday night.  Strawser got himself positioned in 2nd early on behind Danville’s Rory Lieberman going through the 1600 in 4:42, but Rory continued to push the pace with Logan falling of a little in the remaining 7 laps.  Rory won the 3K race in a time of 8:52.91 while Logan finished shortly after in 2nd place with a time of 9:03.06.  In the same heat Juniata’s Wyatt Stroup ran strong in his first 3K race to finish in 9th place with a time of 10:00.95.  Distance coach Jeff Miller said “I thought Logan and Wyatt ran tough races tonight.  Logan knew Rory Lieberman was going to be tough to beat, but didn’t back down from the challenge.  He hung on Rory’s shoulder as long as he could and walked away with a season PR and the satisfaction of knowing he gave it his best on the day.  I thought Wyatt ran extremely well in his first 3K.  He used Mifflin County’s experienced runner Conrad Coffey to key off during the race so he knew the pace would be right where he needed it to be.  He finished out his first indoor season with a great experience.”

Logan is currently sitting in state qualifying position in the 3K, but knows that could change with 3 weeks left in the season.  Logan is battling a reoccurring hip problem and will take some time off running to get that healed up before we start back to base training for the outdoor track season.  If he does make the 12 person cutoff for the Pennsylvania Indoor Track & Field Championships, he will then decide if he is going to take the spot based on how his hip is feeling and what conditioning he lost in taking a break.  We don’t want to make any decisions that could effect his outdoor track season in a negative way.