Tyler Kraft was honored on Senior Night and responded with a second-place finish to lead the Bradford boys cross country team to a win over Smethport and Otto-Eldred despite a close 26-29 loss to DuBois.
DuBois’ Mac Jaramillo was the top overall runner in a time of 17:48, while Bradford’s Ryan Cottillion placed third in 17:54.
Smethport’s Jordan Pavlock (18:13) finished fifth and teammate Ethan Nannen seventh in 18:40 and Sawyer Prince ninth in 18:58.
Bradford freshman Manny Diaz placed 10th in 19:03.
“This was Manny’s first cross country meet ever and he did a super job,” coach Tom Tessena said. “With a little experience, he will move up quite a bit.
Juniors Quentin Minard and Aiden Wright placed 11th and 12th (19:14 and 19:21) to round out Bradford’s top five. Ryan Gildersleeve of DuBois placed 13th (19:31), edging out Otto-Eldred’s Josh Schussler, who was 14th in 19:34. Other Bradford runners included Steve Morgan (18th — 20:00), Gabe Mitchell (19th — 20:05), Devin Benson (28th – 21:07), and Zach Cole ( 36th — 22:13 for a personal best).
“We just didn’t get good races out of the five top guys today just like last Tuesday,” Tessena said. “Tyler and Ryan looked good, and the new guy Manny did great and Quentin had a personal best. But our regular third and fourth guys were off today. We can’t beat teams like DuBois and Punxy without everyone doing close to their best.”
In the other half of the meet Bradford scored 24 points, Smethport had 49 and Otto-Eldred finished with 61.
Led by Ian Pilon’s first-place finish, Bradford’s middle school team scored a victory over DuBois. Pilon’s time of 9:07 just missed the school record set by Logan Caruso (9:03) in 2013.
The rest of the top ten included: Bradford’s Leo Paterniti (3rd, 9:53 — personal best), O-E’s Manning Splain (4th, 10:14), Bradford’s Evan Elmore (7th, 10:25), Bradford’s Makhi Jones (8th, 10:28), Oswayo Valley’s Andy Corriange (9th, 10:47), and Bradford’s Alex Pilon (10th, 10:55).
Other Bradford runners were Luke Caruso (12th, 11:24), A.J. Magee (14th, 11:30), Connor Schuester (15th, 11:34) Nick Davis (18th, 12:13) and Carter Colley (24th, 13:10).
