By Miguel Gonzalez
Sports Editor
The men's and women's cross country teams competed amongst 450 colleges and high schools in the 44th annual Paul Short Run at Lehigh University on Friday, Sept. 29.
The women placed high in the 6,000-meter Brown race, finishing third out of 20 Division II and Division III universities. Meanwhile, the men secured 40th place out of 40 teams in the men's 8000-meter Gold race, which featured premier Division I, II and III schools.
Junior Erin Holzbaur led the Lady Lions as she captured 11th place and ran in a time of 22:16. Following in 12th place was junior Madeleine Tattory, who clocked in a second later at 22:17.
Five seconds later, sophomore Gabby DeVito completed the race in 19th place with a time of 22:22. Afterwards, junior Abigail Faith raced through the finish line, clocking in at 22:27 and securing 23rd place. Junior Olivia Shenkman and senior Allison Fournier were able to score points for the team, recording times of 24:08 and 24:30 respectively.
In total, women's cross country accumulated 109 points, finishing behind second place Assumption University and first place Edinboro University.
Meanwhile, the men's cross country team competed against 40 Division I teams such as Rutgers University, Georgetown University, Wake Forest University and many more.
Senior Dale Johnson led the Lions as he placed in the 40th position with a time of 25:19. Soon after Johnson, junior Brian Mitchell finished and clocked in at 25:49.
"Running against D1 schools reallys allows the team to get a sense of what other runners are doing on a national level," Johnson said.
Four seconds later, junior Luke Prothero completed the race with a time of 25:53. Freshman Joey Erskine then finished and clocked in at 26:01.
Junior Quinn Wasko and sophomore Richard Gruters capped off the race with times of 26:10.
The Lions will now head to Center Valley, Pennsylvania to compete in the Desales University Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 7.
