BROOKVILLE –– On planes? On trains? In automobiles?
The person in charge of transportation is going to have their hands full caravanning Bradford High’s state-qualifiers to next Friday and Saturday’s championship meet at Shippensburg University. The Owls, after running away with another District 9 Class AAA team championship –– the 18th title in the last 19 years and 24th in 46 seasons –– will have a host of athletes competing at states.
“I haven’t even added them up,” boys head coach Tom Tessena said. “I don’t know how we’re going to get there.”
The Owls won 11 of the 18 events, including the 1,600 and 3,200 relays to finish with 128 team points, well ahead of Punxsutawney(60), Clearfield (60) and DuBois (28).
“We won a lot of close races,” Tessena said. “It was a pretty exciting day all the way around. Even when we didn’t win –– we ran in that 400 relay and got the eighth-fastest time ever and lost. The hurdle races and the sprints were all very good. The thing that really separated us from the rest of [the competition] were all the events we were able to have two or three places in.”
Individually, Mitch Vleminckx won three the long jump (21-01), 200 dash (22.67) and 400 dash (52.60) and ran the anchor-leg of the 1,600 relay (3:31.24) to win the James Manners Award as the meet’s top scorer. He also won the award last year after finishing with three firsts and a second.
Shot putter John Eakin won his event with a heave of 55-01, a state-qualifying standard and more than 10 feet better than the second-place finisher, teammate Nathan Gehm. Eakin also finished third in the discus.
On the track, Jaron Ambrose swept both hurdles events, winning the 110s in 15.39, a new sophomore record. In the 300s, he won in 41.17, overcoming a slight deficit on the homestretch, but was quicker between the penultimate and last barriers to eke out a win by .02 over Punxsutawney’s Bayden Lyle.
Distance man Logan Caruso doubled in the 1,600 meters (4:44.95) and 3,200 meters (10:09.52), while Tyler Kraft was a part of both winning relay teams. After Vleminckx dropped from the 400 dash, freshman Michael Bosworth slid into the top seed spot and came away with a win in 52.60.
“Tyler Kraft and Mike and some of these other guys really stepped up today,” Tessena said.
Vleminckx, Eakin, Ambrose and Caruso all have been top competitors all season and continued that Wednesday.
“The guys who carried us all year long and through today, and other guys picked up,” Tessena said. “People came through. They were tired, but they still really came through. They came and they were serious about it.”
In the pole vault, Jack Kellam cleared 12-09 to win, while younger brother Steven (11-09) and freshman Derek Sunafrank (11-09) came in third and fourth.
Even in a losing effort, the 400 relay team of Matt Stafford, Bosworth, Andy Pantuso and Donny Pattison narrowly lost to Punxsutawney, but turned in the ninth-fastest time in school history.
Bradford High also got valuable points on the track from Stafford (second, 200 dash; third, 110 hurdles; third 300 hurdles), Vinnie Bizzarro (fourth, 400 dash), Tyler Kraft (second, 800 run), Nathan Blauser (third, 800 run), Isaac Paterniti (fifth, 800 run), Andrew Kraft (fifth, 1,600 run), Cade Hayden (fifth, 3,200 run) and Dylan Phillips (fifth, 110 hurdles).
Thrower Ryan Whittemore (fifth, shot put; fourth, discus; fifth, javelin) placed in all three events. Others scoring in the field were Daemone Patterson (fifth, high jump; third, long jump), Pantuso (fourth, long jump; fifth, triple jump) and Jack Kellam (sixth, javelin).
