BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Jenn Cronin placed second and Megan Long and Brad Sweigart captured top-25 finishes as LVC competed at the 36th Annual Brooks Paul Short Run at Lehigh University Friday.
The LVC men finished 18th out of 29 teams with 467 points, and the women were 21st of 32 with 481 points. The Dutchmen ran in the "White" race, one of three collegiate races. Over 5,000 runners from more than 400 high schools and colleges around North America participated in the meet, which has 14 divisions competing over three races
Cronin was pipped to the line by a second by Delaware Valley College's Caitlin Dorgan, who finished in 22:11 to Cronin's 22:12. Cronin's time was still by far her career-best at 6,000 meters, improving upon her 22:40 at the Paul Short last year.
Cronin and Dorgan were even out front with Philadelphia University's Sarah Simonetti and the University of Ottawa's Tiffany Locke at the mile in 5:53, but Cronin and Dorgan dropped the other two later in the race before coming to the finish together.
Long grabbed 20th place with a 23:31 time, while Lauren Johnson was 131st in 26:09. Tiffany Frederick (161st, 27:00), Victoria Broderick (167th, 27:33), Emily Devivo (170th, 27:38), and Katie Sharkey (186th, 28:54) were in LVC's top seven. Also competing for the women were Katie Sharkey (217th, 28:54) and Brianna Eroh (227th, 30:06).
"Our ladies team ran tremendous today," said Head Coach James O'Brien '07. "Our five-runner average of 25:17, compared to last year's 27:09, shows that we have come a long way in just a year's time. Jenn and Megan ran great races up front, but our pack of Lauren, Tiff, Victoria and Emily really made the difference. Today was a good day to shoot for time and I'm pleased with all of their efforts."
Sweigart ran a fantastic race for the men, placing 24th out of 245 competitors in a career-best 8,000 of 26:45, lowering his time in last year's Paul Short by 28 seconds.
Matt Nesmith finished 65th in 27:33, and Nick D'Angelo was 97th in 28:19. Alex Talerico came in 127th in 28:54, and Adam Abruzzo came in a 154th-place 30:16.
Also running for the men were Patrick Tierney (186th, 30:26), Willie Rodriguez (216th, 32:17), Corey Johnson (234th, 34:54), and Hung Vo (235th, 35:02).
""Although we had some very good individual performances from this squad, it was not a good team performance for us," O'Brien said about the men. "We are better than what we showed, and this will give the guys something to think about as we move forward into our last month of training. I'm confident that we will use this as motivation."