Reilly Takes Seventh Overall to Lead Lehigh at Penn State National Open

Friday, October 13

University Park, Pa.

11:30 a.m.

Lehigh University

Penn State National Open

Photo by: Don Paul

Reilly Takes Seventh Overall to Lead Lehigh at Penn State National Open

10/13/2017 1:33:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

Complete Results

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Senior Patrick Reilly placed seventh overall in a highly competitive field to help lead the Lehigh men's cross country team to an eighth place finish out of 14 teams on Friday at the Penn State Open National. No. 9 Oklahoma State took home the team title with 45 points, followed by Penn State (60) and Villanova (111). Patriot League foe Bucknell (169) finished seventh, just six points ahead of the Mountain Hawks (174), while Loyola (Md.) rounded out the field of 14 teams with 440 points.

Reilly was the seventh runner across the line in the 5.2 mile race that had 128 finishers. His time of 25:25 led what was a solid team performance by Lehigh. Sophomore Jeffrey Kirshenbaum was not far behind Reilly in 23rd place overall, completing the course in 26:03. Reilly and Kirshenbaum have been Lehigh's top two runners in each of their five races this season.

"Pat ran another very impressive race," said head coach Todd Etters. "I think we're getting better as a team each week and Pat is getting more used to running with font of the pack. He looked relaxed and confident, and he's in a perfect spot right now."

Freshman Brad DeMassa was the third Lehigh runner to finish in 42nd overall (26:24), followed by sophomore Victor Yegon (52nd/26:31), senior Ryan Grace (58th/26:38), junior Brian Arita (70th/26:51), and senior Henry Paul (91st/27:11) to round out the Brown and White's top seven. Sophomore Matt Kravitz also competed for the Mountain Hawks and crossed the finish line in 27:18.

"Brad's showing a little more maturity than you typically see out of a freshman," Etters said of DeMassa. "He's confident, taking it in and a fierce competitor. It's what you want to see and what our team aspires to be, and he's fitting in well in that regard.

"We could get a little nitpicky about a few things, but we're responding," Etters said. "We're trying to close those five to ten second gaps a little bit better, and at a smaller meet like Patriots we'll be able to do that better. I'm looking forward to seeing our guys respond to doing that. You always want to beat teams that are in your conference. We've been edged out a couple of times, but we have our best races ahead of us so we're in a good spot. This will add fuel to the fire."

Lehigh has several men scheduled to compete on Saturday morning at the Princeton Invitational, which will serve as the final regular season meet before LU hosts the Patriot League Championships on Saturday, Oct. 28 at the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course. Check back to Lehighsports.com leading up to the meet for complete previews and information.

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