Fairfax- George Mason will be competing this Saturday, September 30^th, at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for the 49^th annual Lehigh Paul Short Run.
 
The Paul Short Run is one of the largest races in the entire country with over 5,200 student-athletes from over 450 colleges and high schools. There will be 12 different races that will occur that day, in which George Mason will be competing in both the Gold and Open races.
 
The Open Men's 8k will begin at 9:30am followed by the Open Women's 6k race which is programmed to start at 10:15 am. At 11 am, the Men's Gold 8k race will start and then the Women's Gold 6k will begin at 11:45 am.

George Mason Women's Cross country is coming into the race with a 2^nd place finish at the CNU Invitational and with Nourene Nabbus, who is in form achieving her fastest 6k finish (22:38.1) but is always looking to push herself even further. Sarah Clark finished behind Nourene at the CNU Invitational with a time of 22:41.14. It will be her first time competing at the Paul Short Run but she has proven in the previous two races that she is ready for the big stages. Katryna Aulenbach, Brenna Elchenko, and Aiko Galvin completed the top 5 runners for George Mason from the last meet.

Masons Men's team finished at the top, achieving 1st place at the CNU Invitational. Mason Love is currently in a good run after finishing 1st and becoming the Men's Performer of the Week. Wesley Bond was keeping pace and finished in 2nd with a time of 24:36.16. Gavin Mogck will also be making his debut wearing the George Mason uniform after running as unattached in the previous two races.

 "Paul Short is our first substantial meet of the year and is a significant step up in both size and competitiveness compared to the meets we've seen so far but it's just the 'next step' in the overall plan for the season", said Coach Gerard. "The field will be the largest we face all year and on par, quality-wise, with the most competitive meets around the nation.  For us, it's about preparing for what we'll see at the NCAA Southeast Regional meet - a big, super competitive field where every athlete in our lineup will be challenged and have other competitors around, literally, every step of the race.  From a training perspective, we're just on the edge of transitioning into more aggressive paces, so this will be a good tool for us to evaluate where we are about a month out from the A10 meet."
 
Mason Women's team from last year finished 35^th out of 46 teams at the Paul Short Run while the Men's team finished 20^th out of 46 teams. Mason during that time was led by Jack Ikenberry and Annabelle Eastman, but now George Mason will be looking for new faces to bring Mason to the highest level possible.

To follow live: 
 https://www.leonetiming.com/