RIDGWAY — Ryan Cottillion and Tyler Kraft’s third and sixth-place finishes, respectively, wrapped up what was another impressive season for the Bradford boys cross country team.
Both runners qualified for the state meet with Kraft heading to Hershey for the third straight year.
“Tyler has had a great cross country career,” head coach Tom Tessena said. “He has really been a great leader and motivator this season. Tyler has been a major force in the emergence of Ryan being one of the top runners. He has helped all our top five guys.”
Freshman Manny Diaz as well as juniors Gabe Mitchell and Aiden Wright also had strong seasons for the Owls and put together their best runs of the seasons at the District Championships on Saturday.
Tessena recapped his team’s season.
“This year started off pretty tough with dual meet losses to Kane and DuBois,” he said. “We only lose one senior but Tyler Kraft will be hard to replace. Punxy will return some good runners but DuBois will have everyone back so we should be very competitive next season. We have some strong middle school runners moving up so that will help. Our returning veterans must run track and really put in the miles over the summer if they want to win this meet next season.
“As a team we grew quite a bit this season but we have to be better in all aspects of training and team unity if we are to achieve our true potential.”
On the girls side, Hannah Lary qualified for the state meet in Hershey this Saturday with a third-place finish in Districts.
“She really has taken her running to another level in the past few weeks,” head coach Mark Kelley noted of Lary. “She has been very consistent and has run under 22 minutes in every race this year. I know that she will go down to Hershey this weekend and do the same.”
Kelley noted that Mackenzie Lucas, Emma Swanson and Laney Kahle all volunteered to run the race on Saturday so that the Lady Owls would have enough participants for a full team. It was their first cross country race ever.
Kelley also noted the contributions of his only senior, Abby Schleicher, who finished 22nd in 25:19.
“It was a very successful day for us,” Kelley said. “All of the girls ran hard and improved throughout the year. The future looks bright with our junior high group coming up next year.”
