BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Vermont Catamounts cross country team competed in the 41-team Paul Short Invitational Saturday at Lehigh University.

The UVM men (616 pts.) were led by John Benner (55th) running a personal record to finish in 24th place as a team. Utah State (77 pts.) won the team competition and Virginia Tech's Peter Seufer earned the individual victory with a time of 24:11. The Vermont women (598 pts.), led by Lauren Trumble (77th), finished 22nd in the team competition. Yale (118 pts.) won the team competition and Queen's Brogan MacDougall was the top finisher in the 6k.
 
In the Open races, Ross Elkort (18th) led the Catamounts men to a fifth-place finish. Toni Rabasco (39th) and Shannon Lustiber (40th) paced the women to eighth in the open team competition.
 
RELATED LINKS
MEN'S RESULTS | WOMEN'S RESULTS | OPEN MEN | OPEN WOMEN
 
COACH'S QUOTE
"I continue to be impressed with our effort, but both teams in the Gold races lacked some execution that would have placed us higher," said head coach Matt Belfield. "The men didn't run the last half as well as we expect and the women just didn't get out well enough—which left them too much work to do to get past such a large field of runners. For the men, Ross in the open race and John in the Gold ran excellent races. For the women, I was impressed with Toni and Shannon working together in the open race and with Annemarie, Sunny, and Konstanze showing significant improvement in the Gold race."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Benner's time of 25:19 eclipsed his previous personal-best in the 8k by 36 seconds for a 55th overall finish.
• Junior Jack Carmody (115th) was the second finisher for the Cats, racing to a time of 25:44.
• Tyler Marshall (127th), Will LaCroix (147th), and Ian Denis (171th) rounded out the scorers for the UVM men.
• Trumble completed the 6k in 22:02 to finish first for the Catamounts, followed shortly after by Maggie Hallahan (22:07)
• Caroline O'Shea (140th), Sunny Nagpaul (147th), and Konstanze Wendeln (148th) rounded out the scorers for Vermont
• Elkort beat his previous-best in the 8k by one second with a time of 26:07

WHAT'S NEXT
UVM cross country hosts the Vermont Fall Foliage Invitational Saturday (Oct. 13) at Hard'Ack Recreation Area in St. Albans.