Reilly Sets Program Course Record at 44th Paul Short Run

Friday, September 29

Bethlehem, Pa.

9:30 a.m.

Lehigh University

Paul Short Run

Photo by: Don Paul

Reilly Sets Program Course Record at 44th Paul Short Run

9/29/2017 8:08:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

Complete Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh senior Patrick Reilly broke the school record for the fastest time run by a Lehigh runner on the 8K Goodman Campus Course on Friday afternoon at the 44th Annual Paul Short Run, presented by Asics. Competing in the Gold Race - the highest tiered college race - Lehigh placed 20th out of 40 schools in a highly competitive and deep field that featured three nationally ranked Division I teams.

Reilly led the Lehigh pack by placing 18th overall out of 359 runners, crossing the finish line in 23:57, breaking the previous school course benchmark by one second, which had been held by Tyler Mueller (2013) and Ryan Mahalsky (2014). He was followed by sophomore Jeffrey Kirshenbaum (24:31) in 66th place overall, sophomore Victor Yegon (24:52) in 107th place, senior John Tolbert (25:14) in 166th and freshman Brad DeMassa (25:25) in 196th. Senior Ryan Grace (25:27) finished just two seconds behind in 206th place and sophomore Matt Kravitz finished 240th in 25:38 to round out the team's top seven.

"Right from the gun, I saw Pat being aggressive and taking chances and going for it, but being extremely confident in every move he was making," said head coach Todd Etters. "That's the Pat I'm used to seeing and I think he got sidetracked a little bit last year, and now we're seeing what he's capable of doing. I'm extremely happy and proud with what he's accomplishing."

Brian Arita (25:38), Seth Slavin (25:47) and Joseph Inglis (26:05) also competed for the Mountain Hawks.

"We've got to have a stronger pack right where our third runner was today, and that's what hurt us," Etters said. "We've got to improve there. There's stuff to work on and I'm confident that we can do it. Sometimes in a race this big, you lose track of where you're at and I think we had a little bit of that today."

Overall, Utah State took home the team championship with 119 points, with Georgetown (167) and Division II national No. 1 Adams State (179) rounding out the top three. Penn took the fourth spot and Patriot League foe Navy finished fifth overall.

Individually, senior Dillon Maggard (23:27) from Utah State took home the title, with Liberty's Azaria Kirwa (23:31) finishing second and Georgetown's Jonathan Green (23:37) finishing third.

"Utah State looks like team that should be going to nationals," Etters said. "There was a lot of really good teams stacked right up behind them. The quality of the meet is phenomenal, and the depth of all the meets together is really good. I saw that the Patriot League ran extremely well today, so that's good for the league."

The Mountain Hawks also had several runners compete in the 8K Open Race, including Henry Paul who finished 25th out of 336 runners in 25:29, Michael Mitchell (52nd/25:44), Eric Kersten (69th/25:54), Sean Brown (77th/26:02) and Samuel Layding (107th/26:23).

After their first week off this season next weekend, Lehigh will return to action on Friday, Oct. 13 when they compete at the Penn State Open National.

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