Fairfax- Mason Men's cross country places 23rd out of 43 teams and the Women's team finished in 39th at the Paul Short Run held in Bethlehem, Pa. There were many heavyweights to overcome, such as Yale, and the terrain itself was a challenge for the runners. Rain from the previous day made the course interesting but the runners were not fazed.
Wesley Bond was the front runner for George Mason, finishing in 9th out of the 400 runners that participated. Wes completed the race with a time of 24:15.2 completing the course first from the George Mason team.
Mason Love was second from the George Mason team and 132nd overall completing the race with a time of 25:15.7.
Gavin Mogck made his official debut wearing the George Mason uniform and finished 3rd from the George Mason team, showing a lot of potential with a time of 25:26.7. Nick Emmert and
Alex Murphy crossed the finish line to complete the first five runners that scored for George Mason. Afterwards,
Wesley Bond was recognized by the Paul Short organization for finishing among the Top 25.
Kate O' Neill returned to the course after missing out on the CNU Invitational and she did not lose her stride, finishing first among the George Mason team. Overall, Kate finished 37th among 400 runners, a big accomplishment.
Sarah Clark finished 2nd for the Mason team with a time of 22:22.8, also showing a lot of potential for George Mason.
Nourene Nabbus is continuing to improve and has shown that at the Paul Short Run, achieving a new personal record with a time of 22:35.8.
Katryna Aulenbach and
Brenna Elchenko finished 4th and 5th in the Mason team to score the final points for the overall score.
"With the challenging, sloppy, and slow conditions, our results were definitely mixed", stated Coach Gerard. "All credit to Wes and Kate - they were the clear highlights today and competed very well against some tremendous competition. Beyond that, almost everyone had a significant deficit someplace, either not getting out well and then having to work through way too many bodies or getting out well, but then not being gritty and resilient when things got tough in the later stages. this will be a good lesson to learn from at this time though, because this course physically looks and feels a lot like the course at the A-10 Championships in a month".
George Mason cross country will be back October 14th with a trip to New York to compete in the IC4A/ECAC Championships, in further preparations for the A-10 Championships.
