This past Saturday, the Orange and Blue competed in the annual Paul Short Cross Country Invitational hosted by Lehigh University. The Bison were one of 43 teams that competed in the 8k race. 

Head Coach Kevin Donner spoke briefly about the race, recognizing that while many of the people on his team seemed to feel comfortable throughout the competition, others struggled with finding their rhythm and ultimately standing out among the many students in the race. He seemed hopeful that with a little more practice, they would have a strong and competitive future ahead of them. It was ultimately a learning experience for everyone.

Donner described the top two finishers, Grayson Crockett ’25 and Henry Didden ’26, in his short interview as well. He mentioned that although Crockett seemed consistent throughout the race, Didden had more of a challenging race but still managed to stay in the competition. He also mentioned that after the top three Bison finishers, there were definitely some unexpected results and inconsistencies with other previous races.

Junior Max DiCerbo told us that “despite Paul Short not going as well as many people had hoped it would, I think it will set us up well as we head into the postseason considering the competitiveness of the field there. I know our team has been training really hard and therefore isn’t hyperfocused on racing on fresh legs yet. Because of that, we’ll be very fit and ready to go when we need to be, which is about a month from now. I think many of us are also getting antsy to hone in on racing the teams we really want to beat in the league which is really exciting to see and be around while training.”

In the end, the Bison’s highest spot in the race belonged to Crockett, who had a finishing time of 25:11.7 which ultimately put him in the 121st spot. The next highest spot among the Bison went to Didden who finished 160th with a time of 25:27.5. Bobby Lyman ’24 then finished in the 220th, both with a time of 25:47.9. Thomas White ’25 rounded out the top five Bison runners, ending in the 256th spot with a time of 25:59.8.

Their next meet will be the ECAC-IC4A Championships on Oct. 14.