Sep 29, 2002 By Jim Downey 3 min read

Bethel Park’s Meyers breaks boys record Bethel Park’s Thadeus Meyers pushed ahead of the crowd early, then maintained his lead through the second loop of the Penn State-Fayette course Saturday morning to win the 12th annual A.J. Everhart Uniontown Invitational.

Despite Meyers strong individual showing, the Greensburg Salem boys made it three in a row. No team was close to the Golden Lions’ 65 points. Bethel Park was second with 102 and Franklin Regional finished third with 128.

Meyers wanted to get away from the 133 runners, especially the tight first turn around the softball field. Once he moved into the top slot, no one was able to come close in his record time of 15:56.68, almost 30 seconds better than Greensburg Salem’s Jeff Hite’s winning time last year of 16:24.

“I wanted to take it out at a pace I felt comfortable (running). The Allderdice runner went out, so I stayed with him. I felt one kid from Greensburg Salem behind me until the 2-mile mark,” Meyers said of his second run on Uniontown’s home course.

“I like the course. I’m used to more hills. There’s more flat on this course, a lot of recovery.”

Meyers had nearly a minute on the field with Gateway’s Brent Rogus second in 16:51 and Greensburg Salem’s Eric Harbison in third with a time of 16:56.

Local runners placed two runners on the medal stand with Laurel Highlands’ Larry Brink in eighth place with a time of 17:38.90 and Southmoreland’s Steve Imel five seconds behind in ninth place.

Both runners were situated in a pack of four runners for most of the race. Little changed until the home stretch when Brink was able to pull away.

“I got out like I wanted to. After that, I just tried to catch as many people as I could,” Brink said. “After the second mile, not much changed. It came down to who took off when we hit the softball field.”

Imel said he has been building off last year’s track performance through this fall’s cross country season.

“I found out what I could do in last year’s track season. My confidence is up. I have dropped times dramatically since last year,” Imel said.

Kevin Monaghan was the top finisher for Uniontown, leading the host team in 20th place with a time of 18:09.43. Waynesburg Central’s Frank Bryan had a top 20 finish, placing 18th overall with a time of 18:01.85.

Kenny Miller finished first for Frazier, 53rd overall in a time of 19:03.66. Neither Albert Gallatin nor Brownsville had five runners in the race, but Chris Moore was first in for the Colonials (48, 19:00.69) and Joe Franks (76, 19:40.95) led the Falcons.

Gateway’s Frank Sundry won the junior varsity race in a time of 18:31. Uniontown’s Jeff Palya was the top junior high runner with a time of 8:59 while Connellsville’s Joe and Justin Villanueva, Ernie Greenawalt and Arlo Helms all placed in the top 10.

The week will be a busy one for most teams. Connellsville travels to Penn State-Fayette Monday afternoon to square with Uniontown for the Section 2-AAA title. Albert Gallatin runs at Laurel Highlands on Tuesday with the Fayette and Westmoreland County meets to be held Thursday.