Cabrini Athletic DepartmentCabrini’s cross country team competed in the Belmont Classic and in the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University. The men and women’s team ran the Belmont classic on Saturday, Sept. 29, and the Paul Short Invitational the day before on Friday, Sept. 28.
Women’s cross country finished in ninth place at the Belmont Classic. Star runner and senior Carolyn Roberts, an exercise science major, finished fifth place with a running time of 20:11.59, out of 152 runners. The first place women’s runner of the event was senior Joy Aifuwa from the University of Sciences, with a time of 19:40.23. Freshman Meredith Randall finished second for Cabrini in 33rd place overall with a time of 22:28.52.
Randall said, “I know the course pretty well though. We’ve ran on it as a team and I’ve ran on it with my high school team. Coach O’Hora sets goal times for us each week, so I was determined to reach it.”
The men’s cross country team finished in 13th place out of 20 competing teams at the Belmont Classic. Freshman Miguel Amaya came in first place for Cabrini placing 47th overall with a running time of 30:21.36 out of a total of 158 runners.
The women’s cross country competed in the Paul Short Invitational on Friday, Sept. 28 at Lehigh University. They competed in the “White” 6K race. The team did not end with an official placement due to a lack of runners.
Roberts finished in first for Cabrini and in 79th place out of 239 total runners.
“Our performance at this meet was not the best; neither Diane nor I were happy with the way we raced due to several factors. Both of us felt that we could have done much better, but it was still a good learning experience,” Roberts said.
“The Paul Short Invitational is very competitive and our coach did not want to throw athletes into that type of situation before they were prepared or recovered from injuries,” Roberts said.
The men’s team competed in the “White” 8K race and placed 26 out of 39 competing teams. Cabrini freshman Edward Penetar finished in 11th place out of 259 runners with a finishing time of 26:20. Junior Justin Walsh finished second for Cabrini and placed 114 overall with a strong time of 28:14.
“I was fortunate to have teammates that are serious about running and train hard with me. The combination of these factors have brought me to a new level of fitness,” Penetar said. “We expect bigger things to come.”
