The past 12 years, the elementary schools of the Butler Area School District have competed in a cross country meet.

In this year's meet, McQuistion's sixth-grade team ran as good as any school ever as its nine points equaled the standard.

The event, which was started in 1994 by then-junior high coach and now current Butler varsity cross country coach Rick Davanzati, invites runners from the 11 schools to a 1-mile race around the high school campus.

The other schools that took part this year were Meridian, Oakland, Center Township, Broad Street, Clearfield, Connoquenessing, Northwest, Emily Brittain and Summit.

Teams needed to have at least two boys and two girls, and the scores of the boys and girls races are combined. Emily Brittain had just two girls compete, Summit had one boy and Center Avenue had no one compete this year.

Cody West was the overall boys winner with a time of 6 minutes, 19 seconds while teammate Nathan Karwoski was third for McQuistion.

In the girls race, Olivia Swiergol was the overall winner with a time of 7:04 to lead McQuistion while Makenzie Huey was fourth. The combined places added up to nine points.

"We run the same type of practice once a week," said McQuistion coach Chuck Tompkins, a physical education teacher at McQuistion and Connoquenessing. "Then, the kids practice one time a week with their parents.

"Olivia and Makenzie worked together in workouts and Cody West and Nathan did the same as well, as with Glenn Brennen (who placed fifth) and the other boys.

"This team ran hard and practiced hard," Tompkins added.

Davanzati started the race in hopes of giving youngsters "an introductory taste of what distance running is, and lifetime fitness.

"I thought we could use it like a little recruiting tool to see if any kids would be interested in it," Davanzati added.

The first year of the meet came in the spring unlike every year that followed, which occurred in the fall.

"It was an impromptu thing. It was getting a little too late in the fall," said Davanzati. "We had a total of 13 runners. In the second year it jumped into the 60s when we had it in the fall.

Over the next few years, the numbers for boys and girls combined bumped up into the 80s. Two years ago, the number reached 110 before dropping to the 90s last year.

This year, there was a record number, 123 (75 boys, 48 girls).

"Usually the numbers are closer and this year there seemed to be a jump there.

"It was during the same time as a cheerleading camp and a basketball clinic for girls and that could have taken some of the girls we might have gotten," Davanzati added.

The meet has helped spur the interest of the sport as the varsity team has seen several of those runners work their way along.

Steve Monnie, the team's No. 1 runner on the varsity cross country team, won the event six years ago. The course record of 6:06 was set five years ago by Ben Porter, now a freshman and the Tornado cross country team's No. 2 runner.

Jessica Vernon, the top girls runner on the cross country team, is also a past winner while teammates Mandy Saeler and Ashley King have also fared well in the elementary meet.

The coaches of the elementary schools are either physical education teachers or sixth-grade teachers.

It isn't just me," said Davanzati on the success of the meet. "I can take credit for starting and being the overall organizer the day of the race.

"I send information sheets and entry blanks to each school early in the year, but the phys-ed teachers and the teachers get the kids out. I can't thank them enough."