RIDGWAY – Bradford High junior Jared Feura took second place
lead the Owls to the team title at the Ridgway Cross Country
Invitational on Saturday.
Smethport’s Ben Hahn won the race with a course record time of
16:49.
“This was a different course than the one we ran last year and
the top five runners all broke the course record,” Bradford coach
Tom Tessena stated.
“Jared’s time of 17:05 was pretty impressive. The course was a
little sloppy in places so I would expect it to run even faster on
a dry day.
“Jared was definitely the Fuhrman Chiorpractic Runner of the
Meet. He is one of our team leaders and always is at the front of
the pack in practice. He sets a great example for our younger
runners.”
The Owls won the team competition with 34 points.
“Our team ran exceptionally well today,” Tessena stated. “Our
top five guys averaged 17:51 and our spread between first and fifth
was 1:10.”
Steve Kirkland took sixth (17:52), Colton Langianese placed
eighth (18:01), Ben Moran (18:05) finished ninth and Mike Foerstner
rounded out the top five in 13th (18:15).ð
Anthony Cavallaro placed 14th (18:22), Shroy Mukerjee 19th
(18:34) and Rich Bartlebaugh 20th (18:43).
“It’s great to have eight guys in the top 20 of an invitational
but it’s even better to have eight guys fighting it out every day
in practice,” Tessena admitted.
“Our second through eighth runners were only 51 seconds apart.
Everyone of these guys ran their tails off today. ð
“If someone is having an off day, they are behind seven guys
real quick. This group is one of the hardest working groups I have
ever had. I have been around coaching since 1969 so that says a
lot.
“We are still working hard every day and improving. We will
start to taper off and do a bit more speed work in the coming weeks
in preparation for districts and states. It’s hard to go into each
meet tired but that is what we must to do to be competitive at the
big meets.”
Also running well for Bradford were Jarret Clarke who finished
33rd (19:31), Patrick Perschke took 39th (19:46) and Ben Pfeil
finished 59th (22:03).
“A lot of teams could have used Jarret and Patrick,” admitted
Tessena. “They finished ahead of most of the other teams’ top five
runners.
“We are unusually strong this year or they would be in the top
seven. They help keep the other guys on their toes in practice and
will be ready to move up next year.
“We are pleased with our individual and team results. We scored
only 34 points and that is a good showing.”
The Fretz Middle School team did even better than their varsity
counterparts.ð
“Our guys took the team title with only 15 points,” Tessena
said. “Matthew and Michael White ran step for step to take down the
first two places as usual.
“They ran the 1.7-mile course in 10:12 and 10:15, respectively.
No one has beaten either of these guys. This is their fourth
straight invitational win to go along with four dual meet
victories.”
Adam Barnes took third in 10:32, Corey Little took fourth in
10:45, Evan Feura was fifth in 10:46 and 7th grader Zack Acton was
10th in 11:14.
“Our time spread for the top five was only 34 seconds,” the
coach pointed out. “These guys did a super job.”
The Owls will host Clearfield and Otto-Eldred on Tuesday. The
middle school race will start at 4:15 p.m. The girls varsity race
will start at 4:40 p.m. and the boys varsity race will begin at
5:10 p.m.
