EDINBORO — The Bradford High boys indoor track team competed at Edinboro this weekend.
Senior John Eakin placed fourth in the shot put with a 48’7.5” throw. Eakin is currently ranked in the top 10 in the State and will look to qualify for the PA State Championship.
Matt Stafford just missed the indoor record for the 60 meter dash with a 7.26, good for seventh place in a strong field. Stafford also equaled his best time in the 60 meter high hurdles with a 8.84 clocking in the trials. He was injured in the finals but still managed an eighth place finish in 9.20.
“Matt had to run four races in about five minutes and it was too much,” Owls coach Tom Tessena. “He had the third fastest time in the hurdle trials but had to run the finals of both the 60 and the 60 hurdles back to back. He impressed quite a few people with his toughness including me. He was unable to run his other specialty the 200 meters because of his injury but we hope to have him back in two weeks when we return to Edinboro.”
Stafford has qualified for all three of those events for the Tristate Championship on Feb. 17 and he is very close to qualifying for the PA State Meet on Feb. 25 in the 60 high hurdles.
Junior Nate Blauser qualified for the TriState Championship in the 800 meters with a 2:09.80 which placed 14th overall.
“These three guys are what Bradford Track is all about,” Tessena said, “working hard to better themselves and to make our team strong. We need more people to show that kind of attitude.”
The meet also provided some of the younger Owls an opportunity to compete.
Billy Naglik took advantage of this by running two personal bests (400M – 58.16 and 200M – 25.86).
Blauser also had a personal best in the triple jump (36’1”) and James Green had a personal best of 5’1” in the high jump.
David Allen ran the mile in 5:42 and teamed up with freshmen Ian Paterniti, Zander Koppenhaver, and Devin Benson to place 16th in the 4×800 relay (10:09.94).
Kyle Stewart ran the 400M in 61.13 and Devin Benson ran the 800M in 2:34.6 while Ethan Hollamby ran the 60M High Hurdles in 12.27.
“Qualification for the State Meet has changed,” Tessena explained. “Rather than have a time or distance that qualifies automatically, they established a mark and also limit the number of competitors. In John Eakin’s case for the shot put the distance is 51’ with a limit of 16 competitors. John has exceed the mark (52’5”) and is in the top ten. Matt Stafford is a little short in both the 60M (7.13) having run 7.26 and the 60 high hurdles (8.65) having run 8.84. However each of these events will allow 24 participants.
“We hope we keep making progress and that they both get in.”
