BEMUS POINT, N.Y. — Competing in the 25-team Large School Division, the Bradford boys cross country team placed ninth overall with 274 points at the Red Dragon Invitational held in Bemus Point, N.Y. on Saturday.
Junior Tyler Kraft placed 32nd with a time of 18:05. Frontier of Buffalo took the team title with 46 points while Cardinal O’Hara’s Tom Appenhiemer was first in a time of 16:08.
“This was a very strong field of Buffalo schools and they had made a few changes in the course that made it tougher than last year,” Owls coach Tom Tessena said. “I think we are making some progress but this past week’s weather took something out of us.
“Tyler ran a more cautious race but had way too much left at the end. Sophomore Gabe Mitchell placed 54th in 18:37 for another solid effort. Gabe is getting stronger each week and is going to be pretty good by the time Districts rolls around. Senior Hunter Fox continues to impress. He turned in another personal best with a time of 18:39 which was good for 56th place. He works hard every day and is a real competitor. We are lucky to have him on the team.
“Our next six runners are all sophomores. Ryan Cottillion did well today finishing in 65th place in 18:58. He gets better each meet. Aiden Wright was our number five man with a time of 19:11 in 74th place. Ian Paterniti had his best time of the season (19:34) and placed 85th. Ian has moved up each meet and has his eyes on the top five. Devin Benson placed 88th in 19:40. He has been seventh in all our races and has the potential to keep moving up. Stephen Morgan and Quentin Minard were 102nd and 104th in 20:06.7 and 20:06.9 respectively. They are also fighting hard for the top seven.
“Our time split for runners 1-5 was 1:06. That was our best so far. I would like to get that down to 45 seconds by the end of the year. I think it is possible.”
Bradford had three runners in the JV race. Junior Andrew Kraft placed 29th in 20:34, senior Ethan Hollamby was 40th in 20:55, and sophomore Alex Liners was 66th in 21:38.
“This was Andrew and Alex’s first race of the year. These three guys ran pretty well and they will all improve. This was the biggest race of the day with 217 runners. Our Middle School team placed ninth out of 11 full teams. Leo Paterniti placed 13th in 13:23 for the 2 mile course. Connor Schuster was 42nd in 14:28. Evan Elmore took 45th in 15:04. Jackson Brien was 95th in 17:19 while Luke Caruso was 106th in 18:19.
“There were 125 runners in this race and it was the first invitational for four of the five guys so they did well. They are all 7th graders.
“All things considered today was a sign of progress both in attitude and conditioning. We just have to keep pushing each other and keep our eyes on the goal of Districts at the end of October.”
Bradford will be in Brockway on Tuesday for a tri-meet with the Rovers and DuBois.
