Mountain Hawks Dominate Lehigh Invitational; Kirshenbaum Takes First

Friday, August 30

Bethlehem, Pa.

5:30 p.m.

Lehigh University

Lehigh Invitational

Mountain Hawks Dominate Lehigh Invitational; Kirshenbaum Takes First

8/30/2019 8:17:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

FINAL RESULTS

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh men's cross country team debuted the new season in dominating fashion, blowing by the field in the 2019 Lehigh Invitational. The Mountain Hawks topped the eight-team field with a score of 18. Rutgers, the second-place team, finished with 65 points.

The Brown and White had seven runners place in the top-10 in the 6k race.

"As a team, we followed the game plan really well," said head coach Todd Etters. "It's nice to see pack running like that early in the season. Right now I'm really pleased."

As the gun went off and teams began the race, the Lehigh pack began the straightaway strong, racing out to the near front. Around halfway point in the race, Jeffrey Kirshenbaum and Kip Yegron were even with Moravian's Greg Jaindl and Nick Pschunder of Rutgers.

As the race progressed, Seth Slavin charged ahead to join the Lehigh duo in what was turning out to be exciting finish in the final half mile.

With the fans gathered around and cheering on the men for the finish, Kirshenbaum jetted ahead of Slavin and Jaindl to cross the finish line first with a time of 18:34.12.

"I didn't break off until the final 600 meters," said Kirshenbaum. "To be honest, I didn't think I was going to win until the final end. Seth and Kip are such great runners. I'm happy with the individual win, but I'm absolutely thrilled with the team win."

Slavin finished in second place with a time of 18:42.18, edging Jaindl by just three seconds. Finishing in fourth and third overall for the Mountain Hawks, Yegon recorded a time of 19:05.76.

Rounding out the top five for Lehigh, Sean Brown and Brad DeMassa crossed the finish line at nearly the exact same time. Brown slightly got passed DeMassa by four tenths of a second, finishing with a time of 19:05.95. DeMassa finished sixth with a time of 19:05.99.

"It's hard not to talk about Jeff (Kirshenbaum). He's a workhorse, mentally tougher than everyone else out there racing. It's nice to see all the hard work he puts in paying off."

For the Mountain Hawks, Michael Mitchell and Connor Melko put forth strong efforts for the Brown and White. Mitchell finished seventh overall with a time of 19:07.74, while Melko's time of 19:14.09 earned him ninth.

Also placing in the top-15, Avery Lederer who finished eighth for the Mountain Hawks and 11^th overall with a time of 19:17.49. Burke was not far off, tallying a 13^th place finish at 19:29.10.

Up next, the Mountain Hawks will travel to Colgate next Saturday for the Harry Lang Invitational.