Courtesy of Tom Connelly

The Yale cross country women’s team clinched the win at the Paul Short Run on Saturday, while the men’s squad struggled to follow through, finishing in eighth place.

The Bulldogs traveled to Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where athletes competed in both the College Gold Race and the College Open Race. The meet, which followed the Harvard-Yale-Princeton trigonal meet on Sept. 14, saw notable improvements in the women’s performances while the men’s team stumbled without captain Trevor Reinhart ’19.

“I think that everyone delivered on the day,” Sevanne Ghazarian ’21 said. “Which is really important because it’s easy at bigger meets to let the pressure get to you, but I think that all of our team members went out there and didn’t let the fact that it was a huge race impact their ability to really perform.”

The women’s team asserted its dominance in the Gold Race, with its seven athletes finishing in the top third out of a total 353 runners. Yale’s 118 points overcame No. 26 Georgia’s 127 and far outstripped No. 14 Utah State’s 163, with rival Ivy League schools Cornell and Columbia stumbling with scores of over 200. The Elis’ achievement matched that of 2016, when the women’s team won the same invitational with a score of 92.

Captain Andrea Masterson ’19 placed fourth overall as the Elis’ top finisher, with a time of 20:37 over six kilometers, reinforcing her place as the leader of the team. First years Jocelyn Chau ’22 and Morgan McCormick ’22 rounded out the top three Bulldogs with times of 21:02 and 21:12, followed closely by Ghazarian and Kayley DeLay ’21 to account for Yale’s five scoring runners.

“[Head Coach Amy Gosztyla] said we should aim for top five,” Chau said. “We weren’t expecting to win, so that was a surprise … I tried my best, it was a hard race because I’m not used to races going that fast and not really settling down … I put in a hard effort.”

Younger athletes also participated in the College Open Race, where Yale runners eight through 15 finished in a respectable sixth place as a team. Megan Quimby ’21 ran her first competitive 6K race, finishing first for the Bulldogs with a time of 22:54. Following Quimby were Lauren Chapey ’20 and Samantha Friborg ’22, with Friborg also a first-timer in running the added kilometer.

The men’s team took eighth place in the 8K Gold Race with a score of 318, far outdistancing Ivy-rival Penn, who bit the dust with a score of 726. First year Cade Brown ’22 led the team with an impressive time of 25:04, building on his performance at HYP, where he was the second Yalie to cross the line.

“I was really happy with my performance,” Brown said. “While I still have a lot to work on, like running stronger in the middle, I’m really happy with my progress so far.”

Brown was followed by Robert Miranda ’22 and Allen Siegler ’20, who finished as Yale’s first and fifth runners at the HYP meet two weeks prior and finished just two seconds apart in Saturday’s race.

The men’s College Open Race was met with similar results, with the Yalies snagging the sixth place title with 183 points, compared to rival team Cornell’s 221 points. Sophomore Neil Braganza ’21 led the Bulldogs, with his time of 25:58, netting him a 14th place finish. Following in 17th place was Evan Pattinelli ’22 with a time of 26:04, and rounding out the top three Eli finishers was Cameron Wyman ’21.

“The team had a bit of a tough day,” Brown continued. “We had a few guys fighting sickness and injury, so not everyone accomplished what they wanted to, but it was still a good learning experience for everyone. Overall, we still beat some big name schools and made big steps forward.”

The Yalies will compete next at the Pre-Nationals Invitational, held in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, Oct. 13.

Valerie Pavilonis | valerie.pavilonis@yale.edu .

VALERIE PAVILONIS