Hannah Lary placed eighth (21:53) and Bethany Bednez was 13th (22:18) to earn medals at the 15th Annual Bradford Cross Country Invitational on Saturday. The overall winner was freshman Evelyn Lerch from Clarion with a time of 20:32. Villa Maria Academy was the team champion with 29 points.
“Hannah ran a great race,” Bradford coach Mark Kelley said. “She got out in the first half of the race and held her position throughout the race. She is a very competitive and likes the big races. She is steadily improving and once we get a few more races in she will get back to where she was running last year.
“Bethany also had a great race. She has medaled every year she has run this race. She is very consistent and runs hard every meet. She is a very smart runner. She has had a great career at the Bradford Invitational.”
Bri Keller was 46th in 32:53. “Bri has been a little sick this past week but she ran very hard in the hot conditions.”
The Lady Owls junior high team won the team title led by seven girls earning medals en route to scoring 23 points. Sarah Lawson of Corning was the overall winner in 10:42 on the 1.65 mile course.
Korie Dixon was fifth in 11:05, Caitlyn Taylor was sixth in 11:06, Aubrey Cruz was seventh in 11:30.
“These three ran great races,” Kelley said. “Korie and Caitlyn ran with the lead group and Aubrey ran by herself, which is hard to do.”
Also earning medals were Elisa Hayden in 11th (12:07), Leila Bines 14th (12:22), Sophie Cornelius (17th) 12:36 and Kali O’Neil 18th (12:36). Also running for the Lady Owls was Mallory Whitlow 31st (13:45), Brynn Haviland 33rd (14:11), Treyna Allen 37th (14:57), Keira Cleveland 41st (15:22), Kaylee Dennison 48th (17:08).
“These girls have been working very hard in practice and it was nice to see them win their home invitational. Eleven of these girls ran their personal bests. Kaylee (1:49), Keira (3:03), Brynn (1:56), Leila (1:38), Treyna (1:28), Kali (2:14) had very impressive improvements from our last home meet.
“This was a great invitational for us. There was a lot of good competition and the weather was fantastic. I’d like to thank all of the booster club members and parents that helped out with the invitational to make it a successful event.”
The Lady Owls return to action Tuesday traveling to Punxsutawney with Brookville.
Girls Top 10
1. Evelyn Lerch (Clarion) 20:32
2. Leah Prischak (Villa Maria Academy) 20:47
3. Emily Peterson (Kane) 20:53
4. Amanda Ford (NP) 21:14
5. Katherine Flanagan (Villa Maria Academy) 21:38
6. Rachel Hardner (Villa Maria Academy) 21:41
7. Abby Laborde (Clearfield) 21:42
8. Hannah Lary (Bradford) 21:53
9. Bella Scott (Clarion) 21:57
10. Chelsea Hunt (ECC) 21:59
