RIDGWAY — Bradford senior Brayden Frair continued his dominant cross country season on Wednesday, taking first at the Ridgway Invitational.
The time of 16:20.2 was the fastest ever for a Bradford runner on the course and may also have broken the course record, although that could not be verified.
“He ran a great race, leading from start to finish,” said Bradford coach Tom Tessena. “This race had some really great runners.”
Blake Glass of Fort LeBoeuf was second in 16:27.5, followed by Jackson Nicewonger of North Clarion (17:10.4), Evan McKalsen of Brookville (17:13.7) and Kaiden Williams of Bellefonte (17:16.5).
The top 17 runners were all under 18:00. Brookville took the team title with 72 points, followed by Central Clarion (89), Bradford (130), Elk County Catholic (153) and Fort LeBoeuf (158).
“Brayden had a great day as he has all year long,” Tessena said. “It’s exciting to see him get faster each week.”
Sophomore Evan Troisi finished just out of the award winners, taking in 18th in 18:04.
“This was Evan’s fastest time on this course,” Tessena said. “He is getting stronger each week and positioning himself in a stat meet qualifying position.”
Sophomore Kadyn Tessena placed 29th in 18:35 with his best time of the year.
:He has been running well the last half of the season,” Tessena said. “He also has an opportunity to qualify for states but must move up a few runners.”
Freshman Jordan Hogue was our fourth, taking 46th place in 19:31.
“Jordan has been getting faster all year long and should be ready to do good things at districts,” Tessena said.
Senior Joe Caruso placed 50th in 19:37, freshman Nikolai Frontino was 54th in 19:40.9, and Junior Marcus Terwilliger was a step behind in 55th in 19:41. Also running for the Owls were: Xavier Frontino (64th – 20:08), Cavan Drake (77th- 20:34), Owen Blauser (88th – 20:34), Malyk Harpster (94th -21:33), and Miles Hawk (106th – 22:15). There was a total of 134 runners in the race.
“We have had some guys miss practices because of sickness and injuries,” Tessena noted. “In addition we have had some very hard practices, so no one was rested for this race. That alone makes me think that we will drop our times significantly in several weeks at districts on Oct. 26 on the same course as we ran today. We need to get everyone healthy to make a strong showing. Right now, the heavy favorite is clearly Brookville. They beat everyone today and only had 72 points. They have three very strong runners and three other guys who can run with just about everyone else. St. Marys has two outstanding runners who didn’t run today. They will be in that top group as well. They also have some other guys who are pretty good as well. To qualify for states you have to be on the winning team or be in the top five runners in all the rest of the schools, so it is not going to be easy. Punxsy and Clearfield also have some strong runners who will battle hard for those 5 places at the state meet.”
The Owls travel to Rocky Grove on Saturday, and Brookville and Punxsutawney will be there as well, along with over 20 other schools.
“They have a very challenging course with hard hills, so it will be another challenging day,” Tessena said.
In middle school action the Owls placed 11th overall. Seventh grader Charlie Vinelli was the lone award winner with a 10th place finish in 10:09.8 on the 1.56-mile course.
“Charlie improved his time by 51 seconds from the last time we ran on this course on Sept.17,” Tessena said. “He was the second fastest seventh grader on the day as well. He continues to surprise us each week.”
Owen Tingley ran well to take 42nd in 11:32. He improved his best time by 37 seconds. Langdon Krepp placed 51st in 11:49. Oliver Burritt finished 78th in 13:24.6. He improved over 3 minutes. Jacob Warfield came in 89th in 15:11.2 with an improvement of 1:18. The middle school team will also travel to Rocky Grove for their final meet of the season
