Mifflin County boys XC finishes 7th at Galveston

By Kenny Varner Jr.
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: September 11, 2022

Courtesy of Mifflin County Cross Country
GALVESTON, Tx. – Mifflin County’s Boys Cross Country placed a respectable 7th in a 14 team field in the large school varsity race this past Friday. Mifflin County was the only team that wasn’t from Texas at the invitational that had over 1500 runners in various classifications.

Salado won the race with 71 points with Fort Bend Ridge Point second with 129. The next five teams were separated by only eight points with MC finishing seventh in the 14 team field.

Submitted photo – Hart Oden lines up for the start of the boys freshmen two mile race. Hart placed second.

“We were invited to the race and thought what an opportunity for our student athletes if we could go,” said MIfflin County coach Gregory Loht. “We could not have had a better experience.

The race is completely held on the beach. The sand is packed and firm. The runners race (approximately) 1 1/2 miles down the beach, make a U-turn and race back to the finish to complete the 5000 meter course.

Submitted photo – Cameron Barben nears the 800 meter mark at the Galveston Beach Race.

CJ Coffey finished 7th (18:23), Cody Fultz 19th (18:54) both receiving medals for their efforts. Caden Bell 38 (19:22), Styers Oden 53rd (19:39) and Cameron Barben 72nd (20:18)rounded out the scoring. Luke Breneman and Maxwell Laudermilch both ran in the varsity race.

“This was totally new for us. We knew it was a beach run but didn’t know what to expect. The boys response was amazing! CJ gets up for big meets and his 7th place finish got us rolling,” said Loht. “With the short time gaps between our finishers I knew we would fare well. Caden who was running in the top ten struggled to finish after reaching the half way mark. Cody stepped up when he realized Caden was having trouble. In a lot of our invitationals Cody is on the short side of earning a medal. We are glad he got one today. Styers continues to race well. Cameron is starting to put things together and is getting faster with each race.”

In the Freshmen 2 Mile race, Hart Oden’s strong finish powered him to the second place medal. “As an eighth grader, Hart medaled in every Invitational he was in. We were glad he was able to keep that streak alive,” added Loht.