Rain made for very muddy conditions for West Chester’s Golden Rams cross country team at Lehigh University’s Paul Short Run this past Thursday, where the team finished 18th.
“I thought times would be slow, but we raced really well and ran some fast times,” Coach Andrew Huber said. “There were 283 runners in the men’s division and we placed 18th out of 33 teams, beating Kutztown for the first time in at least five years.”
Zack Musselman finished in 84th place with a time of 26:43, which is the third fastest time at this course in the last nine years by a West Chester Golden Ram. Curran Kneebone turned in a time of 26:50, the fourth fastest time at this course in over nine years and good for 94th place. Sean Sebeck and Ed Brittingham each ran a time of 27:01, and Jake Siegel finished with a time of 27:16.
The Golden Rams women’s team placed 27th out of 39 teams with 342 total runners in the field.
Amanda Eisman took sixth, running 22:15. This is the second fastest time on this course by a woman team member of West Chester in the past nine years.
Brittany Boyer had a time of 24:00, which was the ninth fastest time on this course in the past nine years. Also finishing was Mara Kelly with a time of 24:21, Leigh Manning-Smith with 24:34, and Trish Evans with 25:01.
“We are racing really well right now, despite some injuries and a lot of the team being sick. We are looking forward to a weekend off from racing next week, before the big push to the end of the season,” Huber said.
The Blue and Gold Invitational at The University of Delaware is the next meet for the Golden Rams at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12.
That is the last meet before WCU begins the postseason portion of its schedule, which spans several weeks. On Oct. 20, the Rams will compete in the PSAC Championships at Slippery Rock University. If the team is successful, it could move on to NCAA Regionals on Nov. 3, and potentially the NCAA Championships on Nov. 17.
Kyle Banta is a third-year student majoring in English. He can be reached at KB683859@wcupa.edu.