Cross Country

Front Row (Left to Right): Aiden Whitfield, Jack Steele, Dmitriy Hershey, Torsten Naff

Back Row (Left to Right): Viv Arnold, Madeleine Rohrer, Eliza Myer, Alyssa Eby, Laney McCanna, Gemma Rodak, Audrey Boyce, Rae Sandt

Cross Country Party

To end the 2021 cross country season we had an end of the year party at Manor Middle School. We had a lot of fun wishing our teammates goodbye and doing fun activities. We ended up doing a fun short skit in groups and having a plank-off. Tristan Weaver and Jack Steele held a Plank for 7 minutes. For the girls it was Greta Heitland, Alyssa Eby, and Reagan Bragelman. The first thing we did was eat food while talking to our friends. We handed out awards for perfect attendance and participation. Our coach told us if we combined how many minutes our whole team practiced it would be a total of 400 hours. That’s about 16 full days of practicing for our whole team. We finished off by watching a slideshow with pictures from the beginning to the end of the season.

Girls Iron Bridge Invitational October 16

This was the last meet for the cross country fall season. The girls made this a fantastic meet to end on. For this meet the JV team was split into JV and Varsity. This meet they went against 25 teams.

The JV girls who got top 15 out of Penn Manor were Madison Martin(4th), Greta Heitland(13th), and Madeleine Rohrer(14th). Great job to all.

The Penn Manor girl varsity team who got top 30 were Rae Sandt(3rd) and Raegan Braegelmann(19th). The girls from the JV team who got into varsity for Penn Manor were Rae Sandt, Raegan Braegelmann, Reagan Gerlach, Alyssa Eby, Claire Roberts, Gemma Rodak, and Laney McCanna. Girls Penn Manor varsity got 3rd place overall. Amazing job to everybody!

This was the Iron Bridge Invitational Course.

Boys October 16, 2021

As a team, the boys had one of their best races at their championship meet, Iron Bridge Invitational. There were 25 teams at Iron Bridge, and the boys came in fourth. The top 30 finishers received a medal. Penn Manor boys receiving a medal were Tristan Weaver in fourth, Jack Steele in twenty-third, and Caleb Howell in twenty-ninth. Iron Bridge was again split into two different groups. There were seven boys who competed in the varsity race and the rest competed in the junior varsity race. This was the boys last race, and they all worked hard to get where they are. This team sure had a fun season filled with laughter, games, and hard work. We want to thank everyone who came out to support us when we won and when we lost. We’ll see you next year!

Girls October 12, 2021

Today we went against CV and E-Town. The girls beat CV but lost by one point from E-Town. The girls put in a lot of great effort and tried their best. The race was 1 mile and ½. The top 7 Penn Manor girl finishers were Rae Sandt, Raegan Braegelman, Alyssa Eby, Reagan Gerlach, Madison Martin, Greta Heitland, and Gemma Rodak. Everyone had an amazing race. This Saturday we have a huge race; we are going against 25 teams!

Boys October 12, 2021

Even though the boys did not beat E-Town or Conestoga Valley’s tough teams, they truly put in their best effort. To start, the course was ½ of a mile short, which I think confused the boys. The top five boys from Penn Manor were Tristan Weaver, Caleb Howell, Gage Myers, Jack Steele, and Vincent Keefer. Penn Manor junior high cross country has one big meet left, Iron Bridge Invitational. We hope to see you there cheering them on! The boys have improved by leaps and bounds, and they have truly become a unit. Good luck to all Penn Manor teams as they reach the end of their hard earned seasons! GO COMETS!

Girls October 6, 2021

Both the girls and boys won against Hempfield and Solanco. The girls' final scores for Penn Manor were 22/Hempfield 36 and 15/Solanco 50.

The top 10 Penn Manor girl runners were Rae Sandt (overall winner!!!), Raegan Braegelmann, Alyssa Eby, Reagan Gerlach, Laney McCanna, Claire Roberts, Gemma Rodak, Greta Heitland, Madison Martin, and Madeleine Rohrer. Everyone really tried their hardest and did their best. There was a lot of perseverance and hard work put into this race. Almost everybody got a personal record in this race.

Boys October 6, 2021

On their home course the Penn Manor boys cross country beat both Hempfield and Solanco. This was the last home meet of the season, and many boys ran better than ever. The boys easily beat Solanco, but pulled out the win by one point against Hempfield! Here are the results and places of the race: Caleb Howell in third, Gage Myers in fifth, Jack Steele in sixth, Vincent Keefer in ninth, and Ethan Braeglmann coming in fifteenth place. Almost all of the other boys ran their best races while being cheered on by friends and family. We hope to see you there cheering on the boys on October 12 against Conestoga Valley and E town. Our last meet of the season is an invitational called Iron Bridge held on October 16. Good luck to all Comet teams!

Girls Invitational Meet At Bridge The Gap

The Junior Varsity teams were split into two different groups: Varsity and Junior Varsity. For every Varsity group you could only have 8 runners. The course was very hilly.

For Varsity the Penn Manor girl runners who got top 15 were given a medal (pictured at right). The runners that placed top 15 in Penn Manor Varsity were Rae Sandt (4), Alyssa Eby (14th), and Raegan Braegelmann(15th). For the team awards Penn Manor Varsity girls got 2nd place (Also pictured at right).

For Junior Varsity the Penn Manor girl runners who placed top 10 in Penn Manor were Laney McCanna (3rd) and Madison Martin (6th). Great job to all Penn Manor girls.

Boys Bridge The Gap Invitational

On Saturday, October 2, the Penn Manor junior high boys competed in the Bridge The Gap Invitational. Bridge The Gap was separated into boys varsity and boys junior varsity. The top eight from each team competed in the varsity race, and anyone with a previous time lower than twenty-two minutes competed in the junior varsity meet. There were a total of fifteen teams racing, but that didn't stop the boys on the hilly course. Jack Steele, Gage Myers, and Caleb Howell all came in the top fifteen, which led them to get an award.

Boys September 21

Penn Manor's cross country teams traveled to Cedar Crest to race against Cedar Crest and Ephrata. The boys defeated both Ephrata and Cedar Crest. Many of the boys ran their best races, and we also had a Penn Manor runner come in first! Tristan Weaver came in first place along with Jack Steele in fifth, Gage Myers in sixth, and Caleb Howell in ninth. At every race the boys get better, and they become closer and stronger as a whole.

Girls September 21

Penn Manor JV cross country team was undefeated against both Ephrata and Cedar Crest. The girls who got top five in Penn Manor are Rae Sandt, Raegan Braegalmann, Reagan Gerlach, Claire Roberts, and Gemma Rodak. They all did their best and put in a lot of hard work and great effort. There were many personal records achieved. Great job to everybody!

What happens at practice?

Practices start once each teammate is done changing, which is about 3:20-3:30 and it ends at 5:00. Cross Country practices every day of the week. If we miss a practice due to the weather we usually make it up over the weekend at 8:00 in the morning.

Each practice starts off with a lot of stretching. Then, we run for about 35 minutes. Some nights we just run for 35 minutes. Other days we break it down into three parts. On those days we run for about ten minutes, and then we do a sprint workout, with a ten minute run at the end.

About twice a week we do a team building activity. We have four groups that we split into, and we talk about the race. The groups are named beans, wrong direction, the blue jays, and the potato heads. Usually at the end of practice we do our ending stretches and then we do about 10 minutes of core workout and that's the end of our practice. Even though this sounds tough we still play games, we mostly play relays and/or random group activities games that helps us get to know each other.

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