The men’s and women’s cross-country teams traveled to Lehigh for the Paul Short Invitational on Saturday. In their third and largest meet of the season so far, the women finished 59th out of 123 teams, and the men finished 63rd out of 124 teams.
There were over 1,000 runners in both races, which, according to junior Maura Timoney, were split into three divisions. While cross country is often considered to be an individual sport, effective teamwork is crucial. The team had this in mind as it prepares for the Patriot League Championships which will take place at the end of the month.
“We wanted to get a feel for those bigger competitions with a lot more people in the races and definitely work together,” Timoney said. “With cross country, yes, it’s individual [with] your times, but you really need to work together as a team. We really wanted to push more for packing up and having our packs be closer together.”
Top finishers for the women included sophomore Elizabeth Borah, who ran a 6K time of 22:10.7, good for a 171st-place finish overall and 14th in her division. Senior Emma Lorey, junior Casey MacElhiney, sophomore Kira Marr and freshman Bridget Shaver filled the remaining top five for Lafayette’s women.
On the men’s side, sophomore Titan Casey placed 85th in the division and 363rd overall with an 8K time of 26:08. He was followed by sophomore Justin Brown, junior A.J. Sanford, senior Sam Fowler and junior Emil Arangala.
Sophomore Francis Dougherty, who placed 705th with a time of 27:41.01, noted that the men’s side is extremely competitive this year. With many runners hitting similar run times, there will hopefully be a race to the top in terms of performance.
“Everybody is just mixing it up and racing together,” Dougherty said. “It’s helping pull guys along so everybody can have good races.”
Both Dougherty and Timoney mentioned that the team will be tapering down the intensity of its training in the next few weeks as the Leopards prepare for the Patriot League Championship on Oct. 28.
“Team-wise, we would like to be at least in the top six [in the Patriot League championship],” Timoney said. “I think we know we can be top six, but pushing for fourth or fifth would be really good.”
The Leopards will travel to the Bronx next Friday for the ECAC/IC4A Championships, their final tune-up before the Patriot League Championships.
