BETHLAHEM, Pa. (Sept. 30, 2022) - Georgian Court Cross Country competed Friday afternoon at the 48th annual Paul Short Run, hosted by Lehigh. Both team's competed in the "College White" race with the men finishing 23rd and the women 35th.

The "College White" race featured teams from all three NCAA Divisions. Among four CACC teams at the meet, the men were second, one place and nine points behind Jefferson and the women were second of three.

The men were up first competing on the 8K course. Georgian Court finished strong, moving up three team places in the final 1.7K, which is slightly more than one mile. Kyle Spector was the Lions top finisher taking 39th place out of 340 finishers and second among all CACC runners. Spector ran 26:17.0, a huge season best by more than 90 seconds. Alec Valle crossed second for the Lions in 27:08.6, another season-best and his first time running below 28 minutes this year. 

All five Lions who scored and eight of the nine men who ran finished with a season-best time. Riley Keffer and Joseph Jamolawicz finished just 0.6 seconds apart. Keffer was 162nd overall in 27:45.0 and Jamolawicz fourth in 27:45.6. 

A welcome site for the Lions was the return of Xavier Seals. This was the first race of the season for Seals who last year was the CACC individual champion at the conference meet and also was the Lions top finisher at the East Region Championships. Seals, working his way back, finished fifth for the Lions in 181st place running 28:01.5.

Seals wasn't the only Lion to return this week. Kevin Knoetig, who was in the Lions top-three last year in the conference and regional championships returned after missing the last two races. He wasn't far behind Seals running 28:24.7 in 204th place.

Rounding out GCU was Thomas Rosky in 213th place (28:33.6), Charli Dominguez in 253rd (29:22.1) and Dylan Navarro in 257th (29:36.6).

The Red Dragons of Cortland State in Cortland, NY were the team champions. They finished with 115 points, besting second place by 31 points. Red Dragon junior Ryan Cory was the individual champion as well crossing in 24:54.9. 

The women raced a 6K for the first time this season. They had run three 5K races to start the year. The Lions had six compete in the race, led by freshman Brenna Sullivan. The Lions went out as a pack for the first mile, with all six running 7:09-7:10 at the mile split. Sullivan picked up the pace and moved up 43 places between the first and second mile as she ran a 6:43 second mile. Sullivan ultimately finished 180th running 25:34.1 overall.

Amirah Beasley hung with Sullivan for a while. She was one place behind her at the two mile mark and finished just short of the top-200 placing 205th in 26:07.6. Ashlee Pataky moved up 32 spots in the final 2.8K of the race. She was third for Lions running 26:20.7 and placed seven spots behind Beasley in 212th place.

The group of Madalin Jones, Niya Barden and Selma Cazimoska stayed with each other. They were separated by just 18 places and 30 seconds. Jones placed 245th in 27:11.5 and Barden was 252nd in 27:24.5. Cazimoska finished the 6K in 27:41.5, good for 263rd place.

Widener was the team champion among 42 teams with 84 points. Sonoma State's Gianna Bomarito won the individual championship among 331 competitors running 20:52.9. 

The Lions will compete again one final time before the CACC Conference Championships. They're in action Saturday, Oct. 15 at the Rowan Border Battle in Logan Township, N.J.