Results
SALISBURY, Md. – Despite placing 14th of 15 teams, the Goldey-Beacom College men's cross country team had the second-fastest team 8K performance in school history on Sat. afternoon at the Don Cathcart Invitational, hosted by Salisbury University.
The Lightning finished with a team score of 348, just a mere six points behind 13th place Frostburg State and just 44 points (and three spots) behind the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference 2009 runner up, Wilmington University.
“You look at the team finish and think we had a bad day, but we had an absolute fantastic day,” head coach Brian Conley said. “Everybody ran great, and it was extremely encouraging to see us right there with Wilmington.”
East Stroudsburg University, the 5th ranked team in the Atlantic Region, took first place with a team score of 57 followed by the host Salisbury (63) and Christopher Newport University (118). CNU came into the meet ranked sixth in the South/Southeast Region.
University of Mary Washington (133) and Shenandoah University (171) rounded out the top-five.
Five GBC runners ran personal records including four who also earned spots on the school's all-time 8K performance list.
Freshman Stewart Reich led the way by finishing with a 26:59 for a personal record and the second-fastest 8K run in the school's history. Reich hit the three-mile mark in an astounding 15:38.
Next was junior Ben Kinley who ran a personal record, 28:11 to place fifth on the school's all-time 8K performance list. Sophomore David Zartler followed with a personal record, 28:38 and placed ninth on the all-time list. Freshman Hugo Morales was close behind at 28:45, placing him 10th on the all-time list.
Junior Paul Graybeal was the team's fifth man coming in at a time of 29:46. Graybeal hit the three-mile mark at 17:01.
“When your fifth man hits the three-mile mark as fast as Paul did, that is extremely impressive. It just goes to show how fast we were today.”
The lone senior on the team, Trevor Freburger continued to show improvement as he ran a personal record, 30:16.
Junior Demetris Harding and freshman Brandon Turner were the final two GBC finishers at 36:26 and 36:47, respectively.
Next, the Lightning will host the Goldey-Beacom College Fall Classic on Oct. 9 at Carousel Park. The race begins at 10:30 a.m.
