The Colgate cross country team continued their season last Friday at the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh. The men took 22nd of 38 and the women took 26th of 40.

On the men’s side, Colgate’s top finisher was junior Ed Sheridan who ran the course in 25:50. Earning 34th place. Sheridan was not entirely satisfied with his personal performance.

“I actually ran a 25:08 at the same race at Lehigh last year,” Sheridan said. “So the coaches and I are trying to figure why I raced poorly a few days ago.”

First-year Chris Johnson placed 40th with a time of 25:56. His teammates junior Dan Gleason and junior Brian Crowley ran for 26:40 and 26:42 respectively taking 114th and 117th place. Coming in 186th was junior Grant Stauffer with a time of 27:12. Sophomore Timothy Metivier earned 202nd place with a time of 27:21.

For the women, Elise DeRoo lead the team as she finished 15th, running a personal-best 20:42 and setting a new school record. Junior Julie Tarallo placed 87th with her time of 21:50. Placing third amongst the Colgate team and 173rd overall, senior Emily Oliver ran a 22:37. With a time of 22:53, sophomore Kelly Cattano placed 202nd. Coming in 231st and 235th were junior Stacey Marion and junior Hilary Hooley. First-year Sarah Cable rounded out the women’s team with a time of 23:17, taking 239th place.

Colgate’s women’s team also featured runners in the JV race earlier in the morning.

“A lot of the girls who ran in the open/JV race had terrific performances (Colleen Daly and Caroline Prins specifically) that were really inspiring for the girls running in the gold race to watch,” DeRoo commented on her teammates’ performance.

Having placed a lot of emphasis on running on hills throughout the season, the team was faced with a new challenge in competing on Lehigh’s predominantly flat course.

“Lehigh’s course is a pretty fast course and provided us with a good idea of where we stand in relation to the rest of the Patriot League,” Sheridan commented on the weekend. “We are focused mostly on the Patriot League Championships which are at Colgate’s extremely hilly Harry Lang Course and we will continue to place an emphasis on the hill training to be ready for that.”

Echoing Sheridan’s sentiments, Tarallo also saw the Paul Short Run as a promising prelude to the Patriot League tournament.

“We managed to finish a great race on Friday, beating other Patriot league schools like Lafayette, Army, and Lehigh,” Tarallo said. “We gained a lot of confidence with our performance at Paul Short and hope to improve on our home course at Patriots in a few weeks.”

Although the team is already gearing up for the Patriot League tournament, they have several weeks and a few other meets before retaking their home course. Looking to prepare for these contests, the team plans to practice several key skills.

“Our team also seems to be in great shape but not sharp yet,” Sheridan said. “Everyone has logged in a lot of miles but we need to do some shorter, quicker workouts in order to be ready to race well. This type of training should shave a lot of time off for our next races at Hamilton College next weekend and at the University of Albany in two weeks.”

Competing on Friday with several athletes inactive due to injury, the team is excited for their roster’s return to full strength and anticipates that once they do the team as a whole will be even more successful.