Cross country: Men and women finish strong at Dickinson Invite

The Shippensburg University men’s team won the Dickinson Short Invitational held on Saturday morning at Big Spring High School.

Brayden Burleigh, who was the individual champion with a 4K time of 12 minutes, four seconds, edging Dickinson’s Ryan Steinbock by three seconds for the victory.

Following them was junior Bernard England with a time of 12 minutes, 13 seconds. SU runners placed four in the top eight and five in the top 11.

The other three finishers rounding out the top five for the Raiders were Nick Libbi at 12 minutes, 25 seconds, Chris Mullin at 12 minutes, 27 seconds, and Peter Gelston at 12 minutes, 30 seconds.

The women’s cross country team won the invitational on the women’s side as well, with redshirt-freshman Reynah Spence taking the individual 4K-title with a time of 14 minutes, 40 seconds. SU placed five runners in the Top 8 and eight in the Top 20.

Spence posted an eight-second victory over Gettysburg’s Amanda Asaro. Raider freshmen Casey Norton and junior Patty Reis both finished in a time of 14 minutes, 52 seconds, both finishing in fourth and fifth respectively.

Allison Marella improved her personal 4K time by 40 seconds from the season opener, taking seventh in a time of 14 minutes, 58 seconds and rounding out the Top 5 for SU was junior Caitlin Perry who finished eighth.

SU will head to Lehigh University for the Paul Short Invitational next Saturday, its fourth race of the season.