XC Women 20th, Men 21st At Paul Short

Men's Gold Results ǀ Women's Gold Results ǀ Men's Open Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – In the third meet of the season, the 41st annual Paul Short Invitational, the University at Albany men's and women's cross country teams placed 21st and 20th respectively in the top tier Gold races.  The men scored 599 points, to earn a tie with La Salle over the 8K course, while the women scored 589 points over their 6K course.

Before the team races began, however, UAlbany had one athlete competing in the men's open race.  Freshman Jordan Healy took to the course on his own in a field of 497 runners, finishing 85th overall with a time of 26:27, a season best by 1:17. 

The men's Gold race kicked off the team competition following the conclusion of the men's and women's open races.  The field included 359 runners from 42 scoring teams, 19 of which were regionally ranked and two of which were nationally ranked.  Chris Buchanan paced the Great Danes over the course, finishing 59th overall with a time of 24:51.  The time marks a new personal best for Buchanan, improving on his previous best of 25:16.2 which he ran at last year's Paul Short Run.  Freshman Tyler Ranke was UAlbany's second runner, finishing 96th with a time of 25:12, his fastest time of the season.  John DeLallo was third for UAlbany, placing 110th in 25:20, which is a personal best of 57 seconds.  James Sommer was fourth for UAlbany, finishing in 127th place with a time of 25:27, a personal best of 14 seconds.  UAlbany's final scoring runner was Youness Benzaid, who finished 236th in 26:02, a personal best of 31 seconds.

UAlbany's two tiebreakers were Peter Schweitzer, who finished 263rd in 26:15, a personal best of 49 seconds, and Raymond Farinella, who finished 289th in 26:25, tying his time from this meet a year ago.  Also competing for UAlbany was Jonathan Moore, who placed 311th in 26:49, and Austin Lane, who finished 329th in 27:04, a season best of 20 seconds.

Head Coach Matt Jones looks to three teams, Buffalo, Binghamton, and UMBC, for performance comparisons.  Buffalo finished seventh in the race, scoring 268 points with a time gap between the first and fifth runners of 26 seconds.  UMBC was 12th, scoring 444 points with a gap of 1:12.  Binghamton was 18th, scoring 499 points with a gap of 1:04.  UAlbany's gap between runners one and five was 1:11.

Navy won the overall team title, scoring 95 points.  The University of Guelph, from Canada, was second, scoring 123 points.  Adams State was third with 130 points.  The individual champion was Mike Biwott, a junior from American International, who finished with a time of 23:28.

The women's Gold race followed the conclusion of the men's Gold race.  A year ago, the UAlbany women placed 23rd overall in a field of 48.  This year, the women placed 20th in a field that featured 329 competitors from 38 scoring teams, 19 of which were regionally ranked and three of which were nationally ranked.

Silvia Del Fava paced the way for UAlbany once again.  She was UAlbany's highest finishing runner at this meet a year ago, where she placed 10th overall in 20:39.2.  This year, Del Fava placed 12th, but lowered her time to 20:21, which improves upon her own school record for 6K by three seconds.  She previously set the school record at last year's Northeast Regional Championships.

Molly Pezzulo was UAlbany's second runner, finishing 38th in 21:04, a personal best of 1:38.  Valentina Talevi was UAlbany's third runner, finishing 70th with a time of 21:22.  Schuyler Pruyn was fourth for UAlbany, finishing 258th in 23:00, a personal best of 27 seconds.  Finishing fifth for UAlbany was Colleen Maloney, who placed 281st in 23:17.  The women's tiebreakers were Chinira Lovick, who placed 314th in 24:15, and Kasia Geiger, who placed 324th in 25:32, a personal best of 50 seconds. 

For comparison purposes, Buffalo placed 24th with 604 points.  UMBC placed 25th as a team, scoring 649 points.  Binghamton raced in the meet's Brown division.  However, the team Coach Jones considers the potential class of the America East conference, New Hampshire, did not compete in this meet.

The University of Guelph took the team title handily, scoring 48 points and placing four runners in the top seven overall.  Georgetown was second, scoring 127 points.  Florida State was third, scoring 145 points.  Florida State senior Colleen Quigley won the individual title, finishing with a time of 19:49.

Next up for UAlbany is the Great Dane Invitational, hosted on UAlbany's campus on Saturday, October 18.