The Bradford Lady Owls cross country team traveled to the McDowell Invitational Saturday and came away with a 5th place finish.

“This was our best finish at McDowell in a few years. We really ran well and I saw a lot of improvement from our meet Tuesday.” Addie Pilon led the way with a 14th place finish in 21:21. “Addie ran another great race. She stayed in the top 15 the entire race and was very consistent in her mile times.” Madison Vinelli was 21st in a PR of 22:18. “Madison was 8 minutes faster than she was last year at McDowell. That is amazing and a credit to the hard work that she has put in over the past year.” Rylann Terwilliger was 31st in 24:34. “Rylann improved by over a minute from Tuesday. I know within a few weeks she is going to be a minute faster than that. Jennifer Bouquin was 34th in 24:51. “Jen also improved over a minute from Tuesday’s meet. She is slowly getting back into the racing form after missing track season with an injury.” Joleen Weimer was 35th in 25:20. “Joleen was our 5th runner and came in right behind Jen. This is big for the team to have our 3-4-5 runners within 4 spots.” Emma Herne was 43rd in 27:39. “Emma improved by over 20 seconds from Tuesday. This is her 2nd varsity race and just figuring out the 5k distance. I know in a few weeks she is going to drop a lot of time.”

The Lady Owls middle school team placed 3rd led by 3 medalists. Olivia Rhoades was 8th in 13:05, Aria Morgan was 9th in 13:42 and Nevaeh Gomez was 10th in 13:43. “All three of these girls earned a medal and really ran great.” Mariah Hallock was 18th in 14:20, Amelia Pautler was 28th in 15:31, Lauren McGee was 29th in 15:32, Ariana Peterson was 41st in 17:00, Alayna Dillaman was 42 in 17:02, Addison Terwilliger was 47th in 18:46 and Alaina Rosenswie was 51st in 19:45. “Many of these girls were faster in the first mile than Tuesday and were very close to their times from that meet in a longer course.”

“This was a good start to our invitational season. This is where we see some very good competition. We will see some very good competition in the rest of our invites throughout the season.”

The Lady Owls return to action today at home, hosting Dubois and Brockway. The junior high race will be at 5:15 and the varsity race at 5:45.