The men’s and women’s cross country teams left the Paul Short Run with mixed results Saturday, Sep. 30 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The men’s team finished third out of 47 teams in the Brown 8K race while the women’s team finished 24th out of 44 teams in the Gold 6K.
The meet, hosted by Lehigh University, is one of the biggest cross country meets in the country, with over 5,200 student-athletes competing. Last year, the men finished 32nd in the Gold 8K and the women finished second in the Brown 6K.
The women’s team competed in the Gold 6K after being asked to move up from the Brown race, where they were able to face off against top competition. The Brown race is one tier below the Gold. The men, competing in the Brown 8K were able to hold on to a top-five finish despite losing steam following the 5K and 6.3K marks.
Sophomore Jacob Heredia led the Revolutionaries with a time of 25:03.3, good for fourth in the 400-runner field, while sophomore Sarah Mitchell paced the women’s team with a personal record time of 21:34.1, finishing 78th out of 393.
“Both Jacob and Sarah last year were in our scoring positions as freshmen last year,” Head Coach Terry Weir said. “Both are now coming back with one year under their belt collegiately running. I think they’ve got a lot. They’ve learned a lot. I think more so this year, they’re still getting that experience. Now, either leading the charge or being in front of races more.”
After a strong few weeks, Weir said the women got bumped up due to their high rankings, with the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association listing GW as the 10th-best Middle Atlantic team entering the race. Against slower competition, the team would be out in the front, where they would have to manage their own pace while leading. In the Gold race, the team would have to compete in the middle of the pack. Mitchell’s time of 21:34.1 would have placed her fifth in the Brown.
“If we were able to stay in it and just being able to compete and feel the front of the race, they would have ran differently, a little bit, than they did in the Gold,” Weir said.
Of the seven women competing in the race, four set personal records, including freshman Lola Dinneen, who finished second fastest on the team with a time of 21:58.5, placing her at 130th in the race.
The men’s cross country team, running in the Brown, left with a top-five finish. Beyond Heredia’s fourth-place finish, senior Kevin Conlon placed 16th with a time of 25:20.02 and graduate student Lucas Brown placed 33rd with a time of 25:36.1. The rest of the team all placed within the top half of the field, with freshman Brayden Bayek placing 100th in his event debut with a time of 26:14.4.
Notably, the men were in second place at both the 5K and 6.3K marks before jumping 54 overall points to finish third at the end of 8K. The team finished with an overall score, the combination of the five best placements, of 165. First-place Central Connecticut finished with 94 while second-placed Shippensburg finished with 163.
Similarly, the women were in 16th place after the one-mile mark, dropping down four spots after two miles before dropping four more for their 24th overall finish.
“Toward the end of the race, we got good positioning in the beginning and then kind of stepped off the gas a little bit in the second mile, so it definitely could improve there,” Senior Catherine Ruffino said.
The team will next travel to Charlottesville, Va., to compete at the XC23 Pre-Nationals on Oct. 14.
