The Shippensburg University men’s and women’s cross-country teams traveled to Lehigh University on Saturday to compete in the Paul Short Run.
The course conditions were ideal for the meet. The day started off cold, but by the time the Raiders took the course it was ideal racing weather.
It was a welcome change for the Raider athletes, as past renditions of the Paul Short Run had been plagued by intense heat and mud.
The competition at Paul Short was steep, with schools from all around the country, including Tennessee, Georgia, Utah, New Hampshire and Colorado.
SU’s women, after winning the Brown race last year, took a big step back. The Raiders placed 42nd out of 44 teams in the 6,000-meter run. However, the team is young and there were many personal bests run by several athletes.
Freshman Isabelle Gulgert led the Raiders, running 22:57. She placed 151st out of 370 runners.
Sophomore Kyra Gerber, the Raiders’ No. 2 runner, improved her personal best time by 44 seconds, placing 175th with a time of 23:10.
The SU men placed 38th out of 45 in the Brown race, an 8,000-meter run, and also had three runners in the open race.
Freshman Chayce Macknair was the first finisher for the Raiders and the 110th finisher in the Brown race with a time of 25:48.
The Raiders’ second finisher was freshman Andrew Foster, who finished in 199th place. He ran 26:20, 12 seconds faster than his previous race.
Three seconds behind Foster was freshman Zander Ermold in 211th place, running 26:23.
Both the men and women will compete next weekend at Bloomsburg University for the chance to test out the PSAC Conference Championship course.
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