oth the men and women’s cross country teams competed in the Lehigh Paul Short Run on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Lehigh, Pa. The men’s team ran an 8K taking 21st place out of 46 teams. There were 372 runners in the men’s race. Sophomore Zach Trama led the Blue Jays with a time of 26:25. Following Trama was sophomore Matt Shenk finishing with a time of 27:06 and senior Stephen Welsh with a time of 27:11. Sophomores Ryan Conway and Sam Cooper both finished in under 28 minutes.

The women ran against a number of NCAA Division I and II teams finishing in 11th place out of the 45 teams and 365 runners that competed.

Senior Traci Tempone, running her first 6K of the season, crossed the finish line in 28th place overall with a time of 22:36. Senior Megan Tursi finished in 23:31, junior Amelia Tearnan in 23:33, senior Amanda Kerno in 23:34 and first-year Alexis Groce in 24:06.

“Everyone ran well and it set a good starting point that we definitely want to improve upon,” Tempone said. They tied with Towson University and beat Lafayette College, Temple University, Canisius College, Rider University, Rutgers University, Winthrop University, Mt. St. Mary’s University, Binghamton University, Niagara University and Siena College, all of which are Division I teams.   The women’s team was the fourth best finishing DIII team.

Their next meet is the 6th Annual Oberlin Inter-Regional Rumble hosted in Oberlin, Ohio on Oct. 19. The women will be running a 6k and the men will run an 8k. This will be the biggest meet of their regular season.