University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
Lehigh Paul Short Invitational
Cross Country Turns In Impressive Showings At Paul Short Invitational
10/03/2008 | Cross Country
Oct. 3, 2008
Men's Results 
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Richmond women's cross country team finished eighth and the men took 11th against a sizeable field Friday afternoon at the 35th annual Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University. Nicol Traynor took 14th to lead the women, while Andrew Benford finished 18th for the men.
A sophomore, Traynor finished the women's 6K race in a time of 20:47 to pace the Spiders and take 14th overall in the field of 301 runners. Junior Amy Van Alstine was close behind, posting a time of 21:05 to take 26th.
Freshman Katie Spratford turned in an impressive performance and was clocked at 21:48 to take 66th. Senior Mary Bertram was 67th (21:48), followed by sophomore Diana Filtz in 88th (22:01), junior Alyssa Mankin in 109th (22:18) and Erin Lunny in 134th (22:35).
The women averaged a time of 21:30 for their top-five runners over the 6K distance and their top-eight finish led the Atlantic-10 schools in the field with Charlotte taking 11th, Duquesne in 18th, Massachusetts in 27th and La Salle in 29th.
"This was a great meet and I feel we ran well today," said women's coach Lori Taylor. "We're getting better each week and that's important as we continue to pull together. We need our 1-5 split to be down to around 50 seconds. I think we were 1:15 today, so we know that we have some thing to work on...Our top 5 averaged 21:30 for the 6K which is well over one minute faster than our team averaged three years ago when we were last at this meet. That shows that as a program we are really improving. We're on the verge of achieving some great things."
West Virginia won the women's meet, followed by Villanova, Baylor, Wisconsin, Syracuse, Tennessee, Guelph (Canada), Richmond, Cornell and Navy in the top-10.
In the women's JV 6K race, Richmond had additional top performances as junior Jenn Ennis (22:34), freshman Carter Norbo (22:39), freshman Emma Berry (22:56) and freshman Andi DeFonce (23:51) all finished under 24 minutes. Ennis, Norbo and Berry ran most of the race together as they crossed the 5K point in roughly 18:45.
On the men's side Benford's time in the 8K race of 24:15 was good for 18th-place overall in the field of 298 runners. Junior Matt Llano was clocked in 24:18 to finish 22nd. They led the Spiders to a top-five average of 24:53 for the 8K race.
"We ran alright today", said men's head coach Steve Taylor. "We know from our training that this was not our best team effort. We were solid upfront but have to have a closer pack to achieve our season goals. It's hard to complain with a lot of personal bests and a team average of 24:53, but we know we have 3-4 men that can run better and that is what we will work on over the next three weeks. I'm happy that our men ran as fast as they did and I can still talk about not having our best day. We need that in four weeks at the A-10 Championships and in six weeks at the NCAA Regional Championships."
Sophomore Tim Quinn finished 53rd in a time of 24:45. Freshman Levi Grandt was 144th (25:32), junior Jon Wilson was 144th (25:35), freshman Tim Smith was 157th (25:44) and sophomore Calvin Virgilio was 242nd (26:53).
"The race went pretty fast", said Benford. "Matt and I were about right at the mile in 4:48. Then just before two miles we needed to move when the pack separated. We just let some of those guys get away at that point but we moved real well over the last mile. It was a good day for running fast."
Wisconsin took the men's title in the 45-team field, with Syracuse, Villanova, Iona, Cornell, Massachusetts, Duquesne, Guelph (Canada), Cortland and Liberty completing the top-10. The Spiders' effort was good for 11th.
The JV men's race had five Spiders and assistant coach Jon Molz in the field. Molz ran 25:23 which was over a minute faster than he ran here three years ago as a Spider. He was followed closely by senior Tom Davis who returned to competition running 25:26 after 11 months of not racing. One of the best efforts of the day for the Spiders went to Sean Welsh who ran 25:43. Next was Junior Garrett Graham (26:08), Jeff Strojny (26:18) and freshman Kevin Romesser (26:22) to round out the squad.
The Spiders return to action October 17 at the Penn State National meeting in State College, Pa.
