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Bermudian wins first division title since 2009


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Over the past few seasons, Bermudian Springs senior Trevor Grim has gotten used to just missing out on division titles.

In football, Grim played for Eagles teams that came one win away from Division III titles the past two years. In track and field, the star hurdler never came closer than second his first three seasons.

So with the Eagles taking on York County Tech at home on Thursday and the winner guaranteed to win the division, Grim was determined to not let this one slip away. As it would turn out, he had very little to worry about.

The Eagles started out hot and never let up, cruising to a 97-53 victory to claim their first YAIAA division title since 2009. Bermudian took first place in 12 of the 18 events and dominated the relays, sprints and hurdles in the win.

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"It felt really good running across the (finish) line in the 4X400 to seal the deal, even though we had already clinched," Grim said. "I've been in league championships and come up short every time, often not by much. Today we handed it them, it felt really good."

While the Eagles entered Thursday expecting to win, they didn't think it would be by such a large margin. But even with one of the area's top long jumpers in Devon Hodgen missing the meet, Bermudian still exceeded their point expectations.

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In the long jump, freshman Kolt Byers came up huge by taking first place with a mark of 19 feet, eight inches to make up for Hodgen's absence. Bermudian also swept the 100-meter dash, while Grim took first place in both the 110 and 300-meter hurdles as usual. York County Tech had a slight advantage in the field events, but not enough to make any serious ground.

"I didn't want to be overconfident about it because I didn't want it to get in my head, but I had faith in everyone that we would do our best," said junior Ryan Curfman, who won both the 100-meter and 200-meter dash. "According to the rankings (in the 100), their fastest time was an 11.7 and we were all right around there. So we had a good feeling that we were going to win but we didn't want to go in saying' We got this' and end up messing up."

While the Eagles took some time after the meet to enjoy clinching the title, the celebration was a little subdued. With the league championships a week away and districts the week after that, the Eagles feel they can do more damage in the postseason.

And that damage might not stop at the end of this season. While Bermudian will lose its top athlete in Grim to graduation, it will bring back most of its top competitors in 2018.

"We're just hoping to get kids into districts, take a lot of kids there, we're 2A again which we're excited about," head coach Chris King said. "And if we keep everybody healthy, we might be able to contend for that (District 3 team title)."

In addition to the boys' win, the Bermudian Springs girls' team beat York County Tech 88-61 on Thursday.