RIDGWAY — Bradford’s Ryan Cottillion and Tyler Kraft qualified for the PIAA Class AA state cross country meet with third-place and sixth-place finishes at Saturday’s District 9 championship, respectively.
Cottillion ran a personal-best time of 17:16.2, the third-fastest run a Bradford runner has ever accomplished on the Ridgway course, and Kraft ran a 17:38.2.
Freshman Manny Diaz placed 10th with a time of 17:57.7, and was a mere .6 seconds away from qualifying for the state meet.
Also for the Owls, who finished second as a team behind Punxsutawney, Gabe Mitchell placed 12th in 18:37.5, and Aiden Wright 13th in 18:48.2. Quentin Minard placed 17th (18:57.7), and Steve Morgan placed 24th (19:42.5) to round Bradford’s scoring at 44 points.
Punxsy won the meet with 23 points, and DuBois was third with 61. St. Marys (120 points) was fourth and Clearfield (124 points) was fifth.
In the Class A meet, Elk County Catholic finished third overall, Smethport placed fourth, Kane fifth, Otto-Eldred sixth, and Coudersport 14th out of 15 teams.
For ECC (88 points), Joe Wolfe and Ben Hoffman qualified for the state meet with third-place and ninth-place finishes, respectively. Wolfe ran a 17:15.4, and Hoffman ran a 17:52.8.
Also for the Crusaders, Alex Miller finished 19th in 18:23.7, Isaac Wortman finished 27th in 18:56.8, and Regis Wortman placed 30th in 19:15.7. Tom Dippold added a 33rd-place finish in a time of 19:22.8, and Adam Straub added a 40th-place finish in 19:48.1.
Smethport (147 points) is sending two runners, Jordan Pavlock and Ethan Nannen, to the state meet. Pavlock finished 10th and Nannen 11th in times of 17:55.7 and 17:56.7, respectively.
In addition for the Hubbers, Sawyer Prince placed 25th in a time of 18:42.4, Chase Burdick placed 34th in a time of 19:28.5, Hunter Helsley placed 67th in a time of 20:57.6, Kyler Alexis placed 70th in 21:18.1, and Bryce Gifford finished 71st in 21:25.6.
Kane (151 points) was led by John Wolfe, who placed 21st in a time of 18:32.5. He was followed by Jordan Wolfe’s 26th-place finish in a time of 18:49.7. Jack Bell placed 29th in a time of 19:09.4, and Tyler Bernecky placed 36th in a time of 19:37.9. Also for the Wolves, Chad Greville placed 39th (19:43.8), Brennan Smith finished 43rd (19:59.7) and Jacob Jensen finished 96th (25:01.4).
O-E’s Owen Flexman led the Terrors (210 points) with a 32nd-place finish in a time of 19:17.5. Gage Aldrich followed at 41st in a time of 19:49.5, and Joshua Schuessler was next at 44th in 20:00.0. Rounding out O-E’s day were Ryan Love (46th, 20:02.3), Nathan Schuessler (47th, 20:03.7), Gavin Jimerson (50th, 20:09.3) and Matthew Murphy (58th, 20:30.5).
Coudersport (351 points) had one state qualifier in Dalton Keglovitz, who finished eighth in a time of 17:46.5. Benjamin Cornish was next for the Falcons at 72nd in a time of 21:25.9, and Sawyer Batterson was 81st at 22:03.8. Also for the Falcons, Isaac Burr placed 93rd in 24:15.1, and Seth Batterson was 97th in 25:14.4.
Northern Potter, which did not have enough runners for a team score, is sending Sean Baker to the state meet. The sophomore placed 13th in a time of 17:57.2.
The state meet will be held Saturday in Hershey.
