Sept. 29, 2006

BETHLEHEM, PA. - The Marist College men's cross country team placed 19th out of 42 teams at the 33rd annual Paul Short Run, held Friday afternoon at Lehigh University. The competitive meet featured some of the top teams in the Mid-Atlantic, South and Northeast regions as well as nationally ranked DII, DIII and NAIA programs. The Red Foxes totaled 478 points, just trailing Yale University (470) in the standings. Villanova won the meet with 103 points.

Sophomore Girma Segni (Bronx, NY) paced Marist with a 26th-place finish out of 277 runners in the race. Segni completed the 8,000-meter course in a personal-record time of 25:01, despite suffering from abdominal cramps during the latter portions of the race. Fellow sophomore David Raucci (Clermont, NY) also posted a personal-best time on the 8km course, placing 42nd in 25:12.

Junior Tom Williams (Pleasant Valley, NY) continued the personal-best brigade with his time of 25:51, good for 108th place. Senior captain Justin Harris (Wappingers Falls, NY) was 132nd in a personal-best time of 26:08. Junior Mike Rolek (Maplewood, NJ) rounded out the scoring pack with his time of 26:32, which placed him 170th. Senior captain Matt Szymaszek (Simsbury, CT) was 172nd in 26:34 and sophomore Alex Emerel (Holmdel, NJ) was 224th in 27:09. The Red Foxes' top-five finishers completed the race in an average time of 25:45, their best combined total in school history on the Lehigh 8km course.

A partial squad ran at this meet for the Red Foxes, as they did at last week's Quinnipiac Invitational. The full team will be back in action on Friday, Oct. 6, at the Metropolitan Championships at Van Cortlandt Park.