By Chris McCree

Writer

The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed on a very muddy course at the Paul Short Invitational last Friday. The women’s team claimed 14th place out of a tough 41-team field, marking its third straight year with a top-15 finish at this invitational. An injury-plagued men’s team finished 40th out of 42 teams.

The Paul Short Invitational consisted of top-tier programs such as University of Virginia and Georgetown.

Anchored by strong performances from Sarah Moniz ’11 and Stephanie Fulmer ’12, the Bison women showed they can compete on a larger scale.

“The Paul Short Invitational can sometimes be overwhelming, but it was a good learning experience for us as we prepare to face some of the top teams in the nation at Pre-Nationals,” Moniz said.

Moniz was the only Bison to finish in the top 50, claiming 48th with a time of 21:28 in the six–kilometer race. Out of the three Patriot League teams competing, the Bison women finished second, beating Lehigh but finishing behind Colgate.

“We were very excited about the personal improvements of some of our athletes in the Open race,” Moniz said.

Joshua Clark ’11 was the only runner to finish in the top 200 for the men’s team by running a 25:44 in the eight-kilometer race.

“One of our top runners, Keith Sansone [’12], was not able to run due to injury. Evan Novakowski [’11], another one of our top runners, had to end the race early due to injury. We also have Dave Brown [’12] and Charlie Murphy [’11] who are returning from injury that will just get better and better,” Clark said.

Even with the injuries, the Bison were not happy with their overall performance.

“We can run much better as a team than we did this weekend. We are a pack team without a front runner and we didn’t run as a pack,” Clark said.

The Bison hope to use these next two weeks to practice hard and to allow their injuries to heal.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will race again on Oct. 16 when they head to Terre Haute, Ind. for Pre-Nationals.