ALTOONA — Chase Weinberg posted two career-best performances to lead the Bradford Owls at the Altoona Track & Field Invitational Friday night.
State College took first place honors with 131.5 points while Altoona was second with 108. Against very strong competition Weinberg held his own. He placed sixth in the high jump with a height of 5’8”, and ran a personal best in the 110 meter high hurdles in 16.63 for ninth place, just missing the finals in that event.
Wineberg had a great jump in the long jump of 19’11” for a ninth place finish in another personal-best distance. In his fourth event he placed twelfth with a distance of 36’8.5”. “Wineberg’s events happened at about the same time so it was extremely hard but he gave it everything he had,” said Bradford boys head coach Thomas Tessena. “He is one of if not the best competitor we have.”
The Owls had several freshmen that did well on the day.
Danny Marasco placed tenth in the triple jump at 37’5”, fourteenth in the long jump at 18’8.5” and also ran the 400M for fourteenth place. Enzo Aiello had a personal-best in the pole vault at 9-9”. He also combined with fellow freshmen Logan Kohler, Matt DeCasper, and Kaden Kicior to place seventh in the 4×100 meter relay.
Dan Taylor had a personal-best in the shot put of 38’1.5”, increasing by three feet to get tenth. Joe Cary was tenth in the discus and 11th in the javelin. Brayden Friar placed ninth in the 200M for a personal best. Lucas Johnson ran the 100M in 12.44 which was his best time.
“Some of our guys took advantage of the competition but we have to do a lot better if we are going to have any State Meet Quaifiers at Districts in two weeks,” said Tessena. “It hasn’t helped that we missed 3 meets this season out of the eleven meets we had scheduled. Those meets would have helped our younger guys. We need some people to step up this week and have some improvement going into Districts.”
On the girls side of the track, the Lady Owls finished tenth with 33 points.
Sophia Asp finished the highest on the day with a fourth place finish in the discus, with Camryn Tilford following in sixth in the same event. Asp also finished seventh in the shot put. Abbigail Schleicher finished fifth in the 400 meter dash and ninth in the 200 meter dash, while Caitlyn Taylor ended in ninth and tenth in the 1,600 and 3,200, respectively.
The Lady Owls’ 4×100 relay team of Kelcie Little, Alexia Corignani, Emma Swanson and Schleicher also earned a sixth place finish.
Corignani earned sixth in the 100 hurdles, Little finished two spots behind in the same event, while Swanson claimed seventh in the 300 hurdles.
Both teams travel to Punxsutawney on Tuesday for the last dual meet of the season.
