Seniors Jared Feura and Colton Langianese led Bradford to a
15-50 victory over Punxsutawney in high school boys cross country
action Tuesday.
Feura and Langianese raced to a first-place tie on a wet,
3.1-mile course as Bradford captured the top eight positions in the
race.
Owl Runner of the Meet, senior Rich Bartlebaugh, was third in
18:03, his home-course personal best.
Matthew and Michael White grabbed the next two spots in times of
18:19 and 18:30, respectively.
“These guys are tough and come to run every meet and they’re
only freshmen,” said Bradford coach Tom Tessena.
Shroy Mukerjee took sixth place in a time of 18:35, edging out
another freshman, Adam Barnes, in seventh place at 18:38.
“Adam ran a super time – a personal best by 23 seconds and he
did it on a tough day.”
Mike Foerstner rounded out the sweep of the top eight, finishing
the race in 18:41.
“Mike is running with an injured foot or he would have been
right up in front,” Tessena stated.
Punxsy finally broke through with Dana Huber in ninth place,
followed by three more Owls.
Sophomore Patrick Perschke was 10th in a season-best time of
19:15 – a personal best by 20 seconds. Freshman Corey Little placed
11th in 19:25 – a personal best by 22 seconds.
“Patrick came to run today and he looked great,” Tessena said.
“Corey really came on strong and he is only a freshman.”
John Karrasch, a sophomore, took 12th in a time of 19:39.
“John was close to his best-ever time, so he had a good day in
spite of the bad weather. Evan Feura was 15th in a good time of
20:06,” Tessena recalled.
Barnes, Little and Perschke shared the Most Improved Owl award
for the meet.
“Everyone knows we have five really strong seniors and figure
this should be our year, but the underclassmen are looking pretty
darn good,” Tessena emphasized. “They are pushing the seniors every
day in practice and are making huge contributions. We may only have
12 guys, but they are all good runners.
“We knew going in that we should handle (Punxsy), but to have
all our guys run these kinds of races was pretty special.”
In the junior high meet, Fretz defeated the Chucks 25-30 as
every Falcon runner posted personal-best race times.
Leading the Falcons were race-winner Zach Acton (10:20), Alex
Fair in second (10:38), Jamie Karrasch in fifth (11:56), Anthony
Graves in seventh (12:16) and Tyler Carlson in 10th (12:35).
“We have to get back to work and be ready for the Franklinville
(N.Y.) Invitational on Saturday,” Tessena noted.
Going into the invitational, the Owls will be looking to avenge
last year’s Large School Division loss to Williamsville North.
For anyone planning to make the trip, the course is located at
the Ischua Valley Country Club, one mile north of Franklinville
High School on Route 16.
The boys junior varsity team will get things started at 12:10
p.m. The girls varsity will race at 12:45, followed by the varsity
boys at 1:25. The JV girls run at 2 o’clock and the junior races
will begin at 2:40 and 3 o’clock.
