QU Men's Cross Country Places 3rd out of 40 Teams to Record Best Finish at Paul Short Run in Program History

Saturday, October 4

Lehigh University - Bethlehem, Pa.

Quinnipiac University

Paul Short Invitational

QU Men's Cross Country Places 3rd out of 40 Teams to Record Best Finish at Paul Short Run in Program History

10/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country

Paul Short Run Men's Brown Results
QU Men's Cross Country Homepage
QU Men's Cross Country Schedule
MAAC Men's Cross Country Homepage

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Everything seemed to click for the Quinnipiac men's cross country team on Saturday as the Bobcats executed a perfect game plan to finish in 3^rd place out of 38 schools in the Men's Brown meet at the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh University. Five of the Bobcats' top seven runners placed in the Top 50 overall and six of the seven Quinnipiac runners were separated by just 34 seconds in what will be the largest field of competitors at a meet this season. Quinnipiac earned 153 points to place third in the event while Ivy League powerhouse Princeton claimed the victory with 83 points followed by Haverford College in second with 130.

Paul Short Run Results

Place	School	Points
1.	Princeton	83
2.	Haverford	130
3.	Quinnipiac	155
4.	Widener	183
5.	Swarthmore	266
6.	SUNY Cortland	269
7.	Marist	271
T8.	Queens Gaels	296
	Siena	296
10.	Tulane	329
11.	Bucknell	334
12.	Holy Cross	357
13.	Susquehanna	367
14.	Wesleyan	381
15.	Rensselaer	419
16.	Worcester Polytechnic	444
17.	Rochester	462
18.	Ithaca	470
19.	Rowan	486
20.	College of N.J.	555
21.	Conn. College	562
22.	State Univ. of NY	566
23.	Colgate	617
24.	Stevens Institute	619
25.	Niagara	713
26.	Kutztown	721
27.	East Stroudsburg	732
28.	York College of Pa.	767
29.	Adelphi	791
30.	Trinity	814
31.	Hofstra	840
32.	Mount St. Mary's	849
33.	West Chester	850
34.	Lafayette	873
35.	Loyola - Md.	904
36.	Longwood	926
37.	Moravian	990
38.	Assumption	1040
39.	New Haven	1108
40.	Lynchburg	1276

"We couldn't be happier with the performance of our men today," said Quinnipiac head coach Carolyn Martin. "Whenever you place six in the first 52 overall at a Paul Short event, you know it's a good day. They executed out plan perfectly and packed up well as a unit. We had eyes on them throughout and it was a really fun race to watch play out as the team moved up well and stayed together which is what we wanted them to do in such a big field of runners."

The monumental achievement for the Bobcats marks their best performance in the annual Paul Short Run in program history. Their highest finish previous to Saturday afternoon was back in 2009 when the Bobcats tied with St. Francis University for 6^th overall in the Men's Brown event. Also of significance for Quinnipiac was the quality of opponents they legged out including three MAAC opponents (Marist, Siena and Niagara) as well as name programs such as Tulane, Bucknell and Holy Cross.

Quinnipiac's effort was led by their top performer all season in junior Brendan Copley (Colchester, Vt.). Racing for just the second time in 2014, Copley put together an impressive 16^th place finish out of 341 competitors. The 16^th place result finished just shy of his career best at the Paul Short Run (14^th overall) achieved at the 2013 event but his time of 25:25 on Saturday was 22 seconds faster than his 2013 performance from Bethlehem.

Surprising few on Saturday was the strong performance from freshman Drew Reda (Holmdel, N.J.) as the Bobcats' rookie continued to excel in his first season as a Bobcat. Racing in his third event of 2014, Reda picked up a 22^nd place result out of 341 runners. Reda's time of 25:32 was good enough for the 4^th-fastest freshmen in competition on Saturday while he also has now finished as the second-fastest Bobcat in all three of his appearances this season.

The Bobcats continued to benefit from strong outings up and down the lineup including senior Spencer Mannion (Brookfield, Conn.). Competing in his final Paul Short Run, Mannion stepped up with a 26^th place finish which was good enough for third on the team. In his fourth appearance at the Paul Short Run, Mannion's time of 25:40 on Saturday established a new career high in the event.

Of all the Bobcats in competition on Saturday, no one improved more on his 2013 Paul Short appearance than Quinnipiac sophomore Dylan Fearon (Tenafly, N.J.). After finishing 119^th a year ago with a time of 27:15, Fearon moved up 74 spots to finish 45^th in this year's Paul Short Run. Fearon's marked improvement from last season has provided great depth to this Quinnipiac program and was certainly evident in the team's result on Saturday.

Continuing the day for the Bobcats with a 46^th place result, just one spot behind Fearon, was junior Matt Mensher (Tolland, Conn.). Mensher also is a much improved runner from a year ago as he crossed the line in 25:56 which is more than a minute faster than his 2013 Paul Short Run result.

Racing in his first career Paul Short Run as a senior, Thomas Dextradeur (Branford, Conn.) showed well with a 52^nd place finish out of 341 runners with a time of 25:59. Rounding out the top seven runners for the Bobcats was freshman Sal Siciliano (Avon, Conn.) who placed 153^rd overall with a time of 26:54.

The Bobcats will continue into the meat of their schedule on Saturday, Oct. 11 as they'll travel up to Boston, Mass. for the New England Championships set to begin at 11:45 am.

Contact: Maxx McNall; maxx.mcnall@quinnipiac.edu