BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Vermont Catamounts men's and women's cross country teams saw many personal records set in a strong showing Saturday at the Paul Short Invitational, hosted by Lehigh University.
Bel Sogoloff paced the Catamount women (541 pts.) who finished 17th in the Women's Gold 6k. The Vermont men finished 25th (642 pts.) with senior captain
John Benner leading the way.
RELATED LINKS
Final Results: Men's Gold 8k | Women's Gold 6k | Men's Open 8k | Women's Open 6k
COACH'S QUOTE
"The teams ran exceptionally well today," said head coach
Matt Belfield. "We beat a lot of good teams, and hopefully everyone is motivated to keep moving up. John led the men with simply the best cross country race by a man in Joe's and my time at UVM. Ian and Matt really hung tough after getting out really hard.
Tyler Marshall,
Neville Caulfield, and
Luke Petela are all starting to sharpen up too. To have so many under 25:30, including guys like
Steven O'Driscoll and
Wyatt Matyas from the Open race is tremendous. Bel's time to lead the women was the fastest a Vermont woman has ever generated on this course. Our depth was better this week than last race and I like how
Phoebe Koski and AnneMarie Martell are moving up and how
Konstanze Wendeln and
Jane Leighton rebounded from the Coast-to-Coast.
Meaghan Alba continues to run fast without putting it all together yet, and
Shannon Lustiber ran the best race of her career. We'll take another couple weeks of training to work toward tightening up the pack, and we'll see what we can do at home on the 19th."
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Sogoloff (21:06.7) registered a 79th-place finish, followed by Phoebe Koski's personal-best time that earned her 105th.
- Konstanze Wendeln (128th) also had a personal record and Meaghan Alba (130th) finished within a second after her. AnneMarie Martell rounded out the women's scorers in 147th with a personal-best mark.
- Benner ran the 8k in 24:12.8 for a new personal record and 50th-place overall finish.
- Ian Denis (107th), Matt Hynes (161st), Neville Caulfield (182nd), and Tyler Marshall (188th) all set personal records as the Vermont scorers.
NOTES
- Benner improved his 8k personal-best time by 47.8 seconds
- Denis (24:37.1), Matt Hynes (24:56.4), Neville Caulfield (25:01.5), and Marshall (25:04.4) all had substantial improvements on their personal records.
- Koski (21:19.3), Wendeln (21:28.8), and Martell (21:39.6) also made significant improvements on their personal marks.
- Shannon Lustiber had a personal-best time of 22:54.6 in the women's Open 6k while Steven O'Driscoll (25:15.3) and Wyatt Matyas (25:30.4) set personal marks in the men's Open 8k.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Vermont Catamounts return home for the Fall Foliage Invitational on Saturday (Oct. 19) at Hard'Ack Recreation Area in St. Albans. The races are slated to begin at 1 p.m. with the women's 5k, followed by the men's 8k at 1:45 p.m.
