ERIE – The Bradford Lady Owls track and field team finished
third at the Erie McDowell Track and Field Invitational on
Saturday.

Erie McDowell was first (90.5 points). Penn Hills edged Bradford
for third 59-58.

Leading the Lady Owls was Alexa Wilton who won the 300 hurdles
(45.23). The 4×400 relay team of Paige Ambrose, Lindsay Sherman,
Tricia Copeland and Wilton placed first in a time of 4:08.50.

Katie Slavinski was second in the high jump (4’11”). The 4×100
relay team of Ellie Hawkins, Chloe Nickel, Sherman and Copeland was
second (51.73). Bobbi Hopkins was fourth in the 100 hurdles
(15.97), Nickel took fourth in the 300 hurdles (49.77) and Copeland
finished fourth in the 100 dash (12.91). The 4×800 relay squad of
Liz Keller, Marissa Buchheit, Katie White and Ambrose was fifth
(10:19). Ambrose placed sixth in the 800 run (2:29.7).

“It was a good day all around for us,” BAHS coach Larry Stillman
said. “We competed very hard all day against very good competition.
Our 4×400 relay capped the day off with an outstanding performance
to win the last event. They missed our school record by .08 of a
second. All four girls ran great with Alexa’s split being under
1:00. We have six different girls who can run this relay which is
really becoming a top flight relay.

“Alexa won the 300 hurdles in an excellent time which is in the
top five times in the state. Chloe finished fourth but had a great
race going and tripped over the last hurdle and still finished.

“Tricia had another great day with three very good races. She
has been tough all year in every meet. Bobbi had a good 100
hurdles. She and Alexa were both under 16 seconds in the 100
hurdles.

“Katie Slavinski high jumped well especially in the cold
conditions to earn a second place finish. Our 4×100 and 4×800
relays also ran well.

“Liz Keller had a personal best of 5:40 in the 1600 and Marissa
Buchheit had a very good 12:35 in the 3200. We have a number of
distance runners but these girls (Liz, Marissa, Paige, Katie) just
keep going out and running hard in every meet.

“Our throwers – Katie Vecellio, Whitney Cline and Brooke
Milbrandt – had pretty good days, all of them just missing the
finals.

“We still have a lot left to do as we push to the end of the
season. We are still going to be shifting athletes around to try to
find the strongest lineup for the district meet.”

Bradford (3-0) hosts Elk County Catholic on Tuesday.