PITTSBURGH –– At last year’s Class AAA district meet, Bradford High’s Mitch Vleminckx won the James Manners Award as the meet’s top scorer.
Vleminckx picked up right where he left off last spring by placing in all four of his events Saturday at the South Hills Classic at Baldwin High School. The senior took second in the 200 meters (23.63), third in both the 400 meters (53.13) and 100 meters (11.58) while adding a fourth-place finish in the long jump with a leap of 20-03.
“These were very good performances considering the cold, windy conditions,” Owls head coach Tom Tessena said. “With some nice weather, we think he will really improve on these efforts.”
Four other Owls placed in the top eight of their events to earn spots on the medal stand.
Sophomore Vinnie Bizzarro placed fourth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:06.32 and anchored both the 4×800 relay team – with Issac Paterniti (1600, 5:01.11), Andrew Kraft (800, 2:18) and Tyler Kraft – to a sixth-place finish and the 4×400 team to strong finishes. The 4×400 team of Bizzarro, Jaron Ambrose, Tyler Kraft and Nate Blauser “lost by one inch,” according to Tessena. The Owls ran a time of 3:41.01, losing by just 0.02 to champ Erie McDowell.
Ambrose, also a sophomore, posted a personal-best time in the 300-meter hurdles, racing to a third-place finish in 42.77. He was also fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles.
Blauser ran a 54.40 split on the 4×400 and competed in both hurdle races (18.80 in high hurdles and 45.91 in the 300s).
Junior Andy Pantuso was fourth in the triple jump with a leap of 39-03.50 and was 11th in the long jump (18-07) and ran a leg on the 4×100 relay team.
Tyler Kraft placed sixth in the 400-meter dash (55.56).
“Freshman Tyler Kraft had a great start to his career,” Tessena said, adding he also ran well in the 4×800 and 4×400 relays.
Despite the weather, Tessena was happy how his team performed in the season-opening invitational for Bradford High.
“It was a hard day to compete, but these guys did so repeatedly,” Tessena said.
Elsewhere on the track for the Owls, Logan Caruso placed sixth in the 1600 meters in 4:47
Sophomore Matthew Stafford place eighth in the 110-meter hurdles (17.98) and ran well in the 200 (24.93) and the 300-meter hurdles (46.30).
Sophomores Donny Pattison, Mike Bosworth and Kyle Stewart ran well on the sixth-place 4×100 relay, with Tessena noting Bosworth ran well for his first track meet. Pattison just missed medaling with a ninth-place performance in the 100-meter dash (12.16), while also clocking in a 24.85 in the 200.
Stewart came back to run a 26.38 in the 200, while senior Dawson Ambrose clocked in times of 5:05 in the 1600 meters and a 2:20 in the 800 meters.
Others competing on the track for the Owls were Cade Hayden (3200, 11:10), Matt O’Brien (3200, 11:21), Daemone Patterson (110-meter hurdles, 19.39; 300-meter hurdles, 51.56), Billy Naglik (400, 1:02.3, 800, 2:26) and Dylan Phillips (110-meter hurdles, 21.9).
Jack Kellam and Jerimiah Fitton led the field athletes by going three-four in the pole vault with both Owls clearing 12-00. Steven Kellam cleared 9-00 in the event.
Sophomore Nathan Gehm threw a personal-best of 39-06.5 in the shot put, while Ryan Whittemore (35-11), Tony Furman (34-06.5), Harley Peterson (31-08.5) and Josh Mackey (28-03) also competed in the event. Because of poor field conditions, the javelin and discus events were not contested.
Patterson, in the triple jump, had a personal-best leap of 35-06.
“This meet gave us some experience even if it was a cold one,” Tessena said. “We found out that we are better in some areas than we thought but not quite as strong in other areas we thought we were. The next several weeks should tell us more about the team.”
Bradford High is back in action on Tuesday with an away meet at St. Marys. On Saturday, the Owls travel to Erie for the Harbor Creek Invitational.
“We have a few people not yet back that should help, but we need to get them back soon,” Tessena said. “For now, we have some good things to build on and some areas to improve.”
