HAVERFORD, Pa. – George Mason cross country turned in strong performances at the Main Line Invitational on Friday afternoon, highlighted by runner-up finishes from junior Biruk Beardsley and senior Ella Semple against a competitive field.
On the men's side, Beardsley finished second overall in the 4-mile race with a time of 19:26.4, continuing his strong start to the season after earning Atlantic 10 Performer of the Week honors earlier this month. Fellow Patriot Lloyd Sheppard-Brown also placed inside the top 15, clocking 19:55.8 to finish 11th overall.
For the women, Semple secured a second-place finish in the 5K, crossing the line in 17:12.7 to once again pace the Patriots.
Head coach Andrew Gerard praised the team's effort as they continue building toward championship season.
"Productive day today," Gerard said. "A number of the people we opened up for the season raced very credibly and the folks who have been training hard competed well despite tired legs. We're just at that time of the season where our intensity is beginning to really crank up but our volume hasn't dipped much yet so it's a tough time to feel really good in racing but competing hard is a non-negotiable and we did that well today. It is a good positive stepping stone for where we are."
Associate head coach Tony Mihalich emphasized the importance of facing strong regional programs.
"We plugged in some folks this meet that we hadn't had at Spider, so that was a plus," Mihalich said. "We were eager to face the likes of Penn, Villanova, and La Salle, who all bring a different level of competition that is good to expose ourselves to. The Ivy athletes [Penn] never mess around, Villanova is an evergreen nationally competitive team, and it's always good to handle a conference team like La Salle. Our focus was to 'break up groups,' which each of our groups did well. I'd say it was a good brick in the stack today."
What's Next
The Patriots will return to competition on Friday, October 3, at the Paul Short Invitational hosted by Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. The first race is set for 9 a.m. ET.
