ERIE — The Bradford Owls boys cross country team did well at the McDowell Invitational on Saturday, despite being without No. 1 runner Brayden Frair.
Sophomore Evan Troisi and senior Joe Caruso stepped up to lead the Owls. Troisi recorded a time of 18:21.87 for 25th place while Caruso ran 18:43.06 for 29th place.
These times were personal bests both boys.
“They have been working hard to improve and this was an important step forward for them,” said coach Tom Tessena.
Sophomore Kadyn Tessena ran 19:13.99 for 44th despite taking a bad fall and a deep cut on his leg.
“He will be back even better on Tuesday for our first home meet,” coach Tessena said.
Junior Marcus Terwilliger was right behind at 47th place (19:39).
“This was an improvement from our last meet and Marcus is getting stronger each meet,” Tessena said.
The best improvement came from the next three runners for the Owls, who are all freshmen and were running in their first varsity Invitational.
Jordan Hogue ran 20:02.79 (51st place), Nikolai Frontino did 20:15.89 (54th) and his brother Xavier Frontino ran 20:27.21(55th).
“Each of these guys improved by over one minute,” coach Tessena said. “They showed a lot of pride and determination today.
The Owls took seventh out of 13 teams, with 10 of those teams fielding complete teams.
Host McDowell took the top individual and team honors with Kamden Kramer taking first in 15:53.62 and the team scoring with 39 points.
Taylor Allderdice took second (45 points), followed by Butler (47), with each team placing three runners in the top 10.
Bradford had 187 points for seventh.
“Our top guy was ranked second, so we would have moved up two or three places, but we weren’t in the same league as those first three teams,” Tessena said. “I was proud of our guys’ performance and it indicates we are making progress. It also shows we are behind where we were at this point last season. We have plenty of work to do and I hope our guys are up for that.
“We also were able to field a JV team for the first t time in quite a while. We placed fourth as a team . If we ran our two sophomore and three freshmen from the varsity race, we could have won the JV race but with having a small team our guys had to run with the big boys today. They will be better for it in the long run. We had some good personal best performances in this race as well.”
Sophomore Cavan Drake was the top Bradford runner with a 23rd place finish in 21:05.22 for a 3-minute improvement from Tuesday.
“Cavan has been working hard and it showed today,” Tessena said. “
Freshman Eddie Youmans was 28th in 22:04.04 for a personal best time of over two minutes and 50 seconds. Junior Tony MaDonald improved by over two minutes with a time of 22:34 in 30th place.
“These three guys all had great finishes as well,” Tessena said.
Freshman Malyk Harpster placed 40th in 23:26.82 for a good improvement over Tuesday.
“Malyk had a great race going until he had some cramping problems. He will do much better in the next meet,” Tessena said.
Freshman Owen Blauser was right behind for 42nd place (23:39.49).
“For their first Invitational at the 3.1 mile distance they had a good showing,” Tessena said.
The winner of this race was Reeve Flotta from Taylor-Allderdice of Pittsburgh in 18:21.75 and the team winner was McDowell with 33. Bradford had 142 points for fourth place.
The middle school team was missing two runners, but overall had some good performances.
Seventh grader Charlie Vinelli place ninth in 11:42.78 to claim Bradford’s only medal on the day. Eighth grader Owen Tingley was 29th in 12:41.08. Seventh grader Gavin Weart placed 45th in 13:50.91 while another seventh grader, Oliver Burritt took 73rd in 16:38.78. This race had 81 runners in all.
The Owls are still looking for some more runners at this level and anyone who is interested should contact Coach Tessena at 814-368-7028.
Bradford hosts DuBois and DuBois Central Catholic on Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. at the GGB Elementary School at the Tom Tessena Memorial XC Course.
The first race will be the middle school boys and girls, followed by the varsity boys and girls. Parents and other spectators are asked to arrive no earlier than 4 p.m. because of the bus traffic. They should also come in on Bigley Avenue rather than Constitution Avenue.
There will be a brief but important meeting for parents immediately after the meet at the finish line.
