PUNXSUTAWNEY — Bradford’s boys cross country team pulled out two close victories over Punxsutawney and Brookville in a tri-meet on Wednesday afternoon.
The Owls defeated the Raiders 25-32 and the Chucks 24-31 to improve their record to 4-0 on the season.
“It was quite a surprise that we were able to defeat Punxsy,” Bradford cross country coach Tom Tessena said. “Their number one guy wasn’t able to finish the race but we will take wins any way that we can get them.”
Tyler Kraft led the Owls with a second-place finish (first against Punxsy) with a time of 18:25.
Hunter Ford (third overall, second vs. Punxsy) came in just behind his teammate running the course in 18:59.
Gabe Mitchell (sixth, 19:36), Ryan Cotillion (seventh, 20:03) Quentin Minard (eight, 20:19), David Allen (ninth 20:21) and Aiden Wright (11th, 20:40) also provided solid races for Bradford.
Ethan Brentham of Brookville was the day’s overall winner with a time of 17:49.
“Our first four guys ran really well today,” Tessena said. “It was a tough, muddy course and the temperature really heated up by the time they ran. We were still recovering from our race on Saturday, but we did good today and are getting more competitive.”
Ian Paternetti (19th, 20:58), Devin Benson (20th, 21:10) and Ethan Hollamby (21st, 21:32) and Alex Liners (24th, 22:16) rounded out Bradford’s racers.
Bradford fell to both schools at the middle school level, losing to Brookville 21-35 and Punxsy 22-34.
Leo Paternetti led the Owls with a second-place finish with a time of 13:56. Evan Elmore (11th, 14:52), Connor Schuester (17:09), Lucas Caruso (17:57) and Jackson Brien (24:05) rounded out Bradford’s middle school runners.
Bradford’s will have a week off before hosting the North Tier mega-meet with six other area high schools next Tuesday.
