ERIE – Bradford scored a remarkable 68 second-place points
against 40 other schools but the much larger Erie McDowell team
took top honors with 127.5 points at the McDowell Track and Field
Invitational on Saturday.

“It was great to beat Baldwin, Central Dauphin, Butler and Erie
Cathedral Prep as well as those other schools,” Bradford coach Tom
Tessena said. “We scored in 10 events and had a few places where we
should have done better but we produced a number of outstanding
performances.”

Rob Bleem won the discus with an impressive throw of 155’2″. He
took third in the shot put with a 52’1″ throw and was seventh in
the javelin with a chuck of 171’3″.

“Bleem was hampered by a bad back and sore leg from running the
mile in gym class Thursday and the rain also made it difficult for
him in all the throws but he prevailed against all of it,” Tessena
said. “He showed a lot of heart and coach Scott Mealy was very
pleased with his efforts.

“Our 4×400 relay had a fantastic performance in the last race of
the day. We were ranked fifth going into that event and we were in
a dog fight with Baldwin High School for second place. We had to
beat them to hold on to second.”

The time run by the 4×400 relay (3:26.3) team is Bradford’s
third fastest ever. It was behind last year’s eighth place state
medal winning relay (3:22.59) and the 2003 team (3:25.72).

“Our best time of the year was 3:31.91. The guys were tired so I
didn’t know what to expect,” Tessena remarked. “Colton Langianese
said he thought we could beat McDowell who had already run 3:26.
Colton is our team leader on the track and he gets the guys fired
up.”

Rich Bartlebaugh led off with 52.3 split. He handed off to Shroy
Mukerjee who ran a strong 51.7. Vanere Maynard ran the third leg.
Maynard had placed fourth in the 100 meters and fifth in the 400
meters with a 52.49 time.

“Vanere got the lead back with an incredible 50.9 split,”
Tessena noted. “This was his best ever. He is not 100 percent yet
with some nagging leg injuries so this was impressive.

“Langianese took the baton a few yards ahead of Central Dauphin
and McDowell. He ran against two of the top runners in the state.
McDowell’s Aaron Fitzpatrick had won the 400 meters in 50.01
earlier and Central Dauphin’s anchor man Andrew Rotz had run 1:53
for the 800. Rotz is the top guy in the state in the 800.ð

“Colton ran the race of his life and held them both off until
the last 50 yards when the McDowell runner edged by him. We
finished second but Colton ran a best ever 51.7 split. He showed
what he was made of today.”

The 4×800 relay team took second (8:05) but lost the showdown
with Baldwin.

“We had some decent times with Bartlebaugh running 1:59,” the
coach said. “Feura ran 2:04 and Mukerjee and Langianese each hit a
little over 2:00.”ð

Maynard and Langianese placed fifth and seventh in the 400 with
52.49 and 52.60. Sophomore Tyree Bennett placed fourth in the 110
high hurdles with a personal best of 15.55. He ran 15.53 in the
trials. Bennett’s time in the 110 high hurdles made the top 10
all-time list. This put him at number seven all-time. He also broke
the sophomore record which was set back in 1989 by Roy Semrau.

Bennett has now run faster than all-time great hurdlers Shawn
Colligan and Brian Schimp when they were sophomores.ð

“That is an incredible accomplishment,” Tessena said.

Bennett just missed placing in the intermediate hurdles with a
43.60.

Nick Johnson took third in the 300 intermediate hurdles with a
best ever time of 41.69. Johnson just missed the top 10 in the 300
intermediate hurdles with his 41.69 time. The number 10 time is
41.64. He made the high hurdle finals with a 15.95.

Garret McEwen was seventh in the shot with 46’1″.

Sophomore Steve Reinhardt made the finals of the shot and was
ninth overall with 44’6″. David Rivera placed fifth in the triple
jumpðwith 41’10 1/2″. He missed the finals in the long jump with a
19’8″ leap. Matt Teribery had a personal best of 19’5″ in the long
jump.

Freshman Adam Barnes had a personal best time of 10:59 in the
3200 run.

Junior Dan Gonzalez took third in the discus (143’6″).ð

“We had a very good day in the throwing events,” Tessena added.
“We scored 26 of our 68 points in the three throws.

“It is getting down to crunch time and this Friday night will be
a big test when we go down to the Baldwin Invitational.”

The Owls (3-0) host Elk County Catholic on Tuesday. Bradford
will honor its seniors who have never lost a dual meet or a
district meet.