The races may start with a gun, but the Bobcats leave the track with a bang! The Beaver Area Bobcats boys track team are officially team WPIAL runners-up.

The team travelled to Peters Township May 6 to compete for the WPIAL title against Quaker Valley and Mohawk. The Bobcats ended up in the middle of the road and secured the silver.

The boys compete in the 2A division while the girls’ team competes as a 3A team. This arrangement means that the girls have more competitive meets and need faster times to qualify for WPIALs and states.

The following week May 14 was the individual WPIAL championships at Slippery Rock University where the boys team once again asserted their dominance. The girls had a single representative of freshman Annabella Marino in the 400 meter run.

The boys had nine runners and competed in eight different events. This included all three relays.

At the WPIAL meet there were two school records broken. The 2017 4x100 relay record was crushed by seniors Alex Mastoris, Brady Mayo, and Amari Jackson as well as sophomore Jacob Crossland.

The team received second at this meet only behind the Fort Cherry sprinters.

Mayo also broke the 400 meter run record which was a whopping 49 years old and medaled with a second-place finish.

For the other individual events, Jackson also medaled in both the 200 and 100 meter sprints with fourth place finishes in both.

Senior Tyler Biss ruled the distance events while medaling in all three of his individual events: sixth in the 800, fifth in the 1600, and eighth in the 3200.

The distance relay, the 4x800 meter, earned a fourth-place finish. This relay consisted of Biss, senior Ryan Groff, and juniors Isaac Burtt and Brayden Costky.

The 4x400 meter relay was the final event and last medal for the Bobcats. This team received second and was comprised of Mayo, Mastoris, Costky, and freshman Bruce Sutter.

These finishes guaranteed all nine Bobcat events spots at the PIAA state championships May 23-24 at Shippensburg University.

At states, Biss was the first medalist securing a 4:17 mile and eighth place medal.

The distance relay also received sixth place with the help of both Biss and Groff.

For the sprinters, the 4x100 relay was the star of the show. This relay earned a second place finish and rebroke their fresh school record.

The Bobcats’ performance is the highest finish at states for Beaver Area during head coach Allison Churovia’s five-year tenure.

Individually both Mayo and Jackson earned sixth place medals in the 400 and 200 meter runs.

As a team, the Bobcats came in fourth at the state championships which was the perfect way to wrap up a stellar season for the track team, and the boys were welcomed back to town with a police escort the night of May 24.

After their state medals were secured, the multi-sport Mayo and Jackson both said, “our side quests are officially complete.”