The Beaver Area boys cross country team is off to a hot start as they’ve shone in all of their meets so far this season, including two scrimmages.

These meets included a scrimmage at Brush Creek, with 10 schools in attendance, a scrimmage at Brady’s Run, a regular season meet where they beat Avonworth, and a meet where they defeated Hopewell and Montour where the top five Bobcats included senior Tyler Biss in first, and with junior Isaac Burtt, senior Ryan Groff, and junior Nick Miller in third through fifth, respectively, and senior Sam Mateer crossing ninth.

The Bobcats did very well in all of these meets, kicking their season off to an electric start.

It’s become clear that a standout runner on this year’s Boys’ XC team is Biss, according to teammate Burtt.

Biss achieved a fourth place finish in the Boyce Park Invitational, an impressive feat, as well as a fourth place finish at the Gateway Invitational, running a 17:12 and leading the boys’ team to a third place finish.

Biss also scored a dual victory against Hopewell and Montour with a time of 16:27.

Burtt also is optimistic about the upcoming season and believes that the team shares these hopes.

He said, “Hopes are very high; we’re contending for the WPIAL title and state qualification, and we’re hoping to be the section champions.”

As for the girls team, they have also started the season very strong, notably the Gateway Invitational where seniors Rylie Teapole and Danica Purtell led the team to an impressive second place with individual placements of eight and ten, respectively.

The girls’ most recent meet ended in a split, taking a win over Hopewell, but unfortunately falling to Montour. Teapole finished fourth overall with a time of 20:53, and Purtell finished four seconds behind her in fifth place. Rounding out the top five for the girls were sophomores Peyton Teapole and Grace Churovia at eight and nine, and Fiona O’Leary at 16.

Purtell is optimistic about this season: “The girls’ cross country is really off to a solid start. We definitely have closed the gap between our first and second runner, and our third, fourth, and fifth girl. All the girls have been working really hard over the summer, and I am really excited to see how this season plays out.”

We should all be excited to see how this season plays out for both teams as we have some great athletes going into this season, and we can expect some great results too.