OBSERVER Staff Report

BEMUS POINT — The Dunkirk Marauders cross country team had their first meet of the season, at the Red Dragon Invitational at Bemus Point Golf Course on Saturday morning. Coach Adam Woelfle called it “a pretty good showing for Meet 1.”

With the teams in attendance, Dunkirk wound up in the large school races with what Woelfle called “some pretty tough competition.” Ultimately, Dunkirk prevailed.

In the girls race, Dunkirk had only four runners compete, so the team did not earn a complete team score. Still, the team had solid finishes. Dunkirk was led by Jericha Petrella, coming in 13th in 20:55. Next was Sierra Jacques with a time of 22:47, Gabby Hart in 25:15, and Yuribeth Castro with a time of 26:36.

The boys team was led by Anthony Ruiz in 15th place, with a time of 17:19. Ruiz was followed by Efrain Santiago in 19:01, Ethan Yannie in 19:20, Nelson Rosario 19:28, Devin Eddy 19:57, Matt Hanlon 21:16, Jared Glowniak 23:09 and Miracle Berakah in 23:22. Overall, Dunkirk finished in 12th place out of 22 teams. Woelfle said, “when you look at school size, (12th place) was pretty impressive for some of the teams (Dunkirk) raced against.”

Woelfle added, “I’m proud of all these kids. They ran well for the first meet of the season. The nice thing is that this will be the same course for the final two meets of the season, so they can really see how they improve over the next two months.”

Dunkirk will be back in action on Tuesday at Lake Erie State Park against Fredonia, Silver Creek and Cattaraugus/Little Valley.