Lehigh Places 17th in Stacked Field at Paul Short Run

Friday, September 29

Bethlehem, Pa.

9:30 a.m.

Lehigh University

Paul Short Run

Photo by: Don Paul

Lehigh Places 17th in Stacked Field at Paul Short Run

9/29/2017 8:53:00 PM | Women's Cross Country

Complete Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh women's cross country team raced to a 17th place overall finish out of 42 teams in the top-level Gold Race of Friday's 44th annual Paul Short Run, presented by Asics. The Mountain Hawks' top six runners all finished within 1:01 of each other, led by junior Maura Henderson who finished 52nd overall with a time of 20:52.

"I think we had a great team effort," said head coach Debbie Utesch. "It was really nice to be able to see some of the girls pair up and work with each other, and let each other know they were there throughout the race. This is a tough field to navigate when you put 450 runners on the starting line. It's hard to generate power from your teammates and I think we did a really good job of moving forward with that today."

Henderson was followed by sophomore Hannah Bonaguidi (21:09) who placed 88th overall out of 368 runners. Sophomore Ashleigh Crawford placed 137th overall and third on the team, crossing the finish line in 21:32, followed by juniors Stacie Nadel (21:39) in 154th place and Stephanie Hayes (21:41) in 157th. Senior Laura Barnes (21:53) placed sixth on the team and 186th overall and Diana Hammerstone (22:15) rounded out the team's top scoring seven in 225th place. Freshman Hannah Knudsen (22:26) and sophomore Jenn Mickens (22:48) were also part of the Brown and White's pack.

"We came in hoping for a top 15 finish, so just short of our overall goal but I know the way this team trains and I know what's going to happen in the next month, so we're pretty excited about what lies ahead for us," Utesch said.

Utah State swept both the men's and women's team titles on Friday, scoring 72 points. The Aggies entered the meet ranked No. 21 in the latest USTFCCCA National Rankings, one of five nationally-ranked teams from Divisions I and II to compete. Villanova took runner-up with 115 points and Georgia was third with 121 points. Individually, Alyssa Snyder of Utah State was crowned the individual champion after breaking the tape in 19:48. Villanova's Nicole Hutchinson (19:50) took second and Jessica Drop (19:52) of Georgia took third.

Lehigh also had a contingency of runners in the 6K Open Race, with Grace Eckstein (23:28) leading the way in 97th in the field of 262 finishers. Ginger Pojednic (23:33) placed 104th and Jennifer Burke (24:27) was 148th.

After a week off, Lehigh will return to action with the Penn State National Open on October 13.

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