Bulls Come Up Big at the Paul Short Invite

Saturday, October 5

Bethlehem, PA

9:00 am

University at Buffalo

Paul Short Invite

Bulls Come Up Big at the Paul Short Invite

10/5/2019 4:53:00 PM | Cross Country

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo cross country teams traveled to Bethlehem, PA as they raced in the annual Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University.

The men's squad competed in the Men's Gold 8k race as there were a total of 392 runners and 45 schools. The team finished 25^th overall. Caleb Covell continued his dominant season as he led the Bulls when he crossed the line in 23:58.6 for 31^st place. Covell is the first Bull to record a time under the 24-minute mark at the Paul Short Invite. The Bulls had strong performances from William Hilbert (95^th place – 24:33.3), Thomas Flannery (174^th place – 24:59.2) and Scott Loforte (178^th place – 24:59.9). Rounding out the top-five for the Bulls was Armani Merlino as he finished in 212^th place in a time of 25:12.15. Cal Puskar (226^th place – 25:16.3), Alex Hislop (316^th place – 25:53.9), Ryan Buzby (327^th place – 26:03.0), Matthew Mercer (356^th place – 26:30.1) and Christopher Nowak (356^th place – 27:00.9) also participated in the race.

"The field was very deep and competitive, but we had hoped to place higher," stated Todd Witzleben. "Caleb ran a nice race as he ran the fastest time ever by a UB Bull at the Paul Short 8k course running 23:58, placing 31^st in an extremely deep men's field. Several men had good races, but we had a couple of key men sick— that impacted team overall placing. We are focused on moving forward as we build towards the MAC championships."

Highlighting the day was the women's team. In the Women's Brown 6k race, the women's team bullied their way to a third place finish that had 44 teams and 370 individual runners. The Bulls had three runners finish in the top-35 and five finish in the top-70. Alexia Hecico stampeded to an 18^th place finish as she crossed the line in 21:42.8. On her heels were teammates Meghan LaTuso (24^th place – 21:50.5) and Dana Lynch (33^rd place – 21:58.1). Riley Jones (66^th place – 22:20.9) and Maxine Dupuis (68^th place – 22:21.1) rounded out the Bulls' top-five. Lily Meek (199^th place – 23:22.1), Alanna Kramer (229^th place – 23:42.0), Saroja Rao (244^th place – 23:48.0) and Samantha Vetter (273^rd place – 24:13.4) had respectable races in a competitive field.

"Being in the Brown 6k race allowed the women to execute the race plan effectively and improve significantly on their last race," stated head coach Vicki Mitchell. "While we still have more to improve and grow upon, today was a very positive step forward for an overall young and inexperienced team. We need to keep building strength and also close up the large gap from numbers five to six. Placing third in the Brown race was a great accomplishment for this young group."

The Bulls have the week off as they will head to the Penn State National Invite at State College, PA on Friday, October 18 and the Canisius Alumni Challenge on Saturday.

Full men's results can be found here. Full women's results can be found here.