This past Friday, cross country raced at the Paul Short Invitational, hosted by Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. After its victory at Lock Haven last week, Cornell went to battle against some of the fiercest competition in the nation, including four Ivy league foes: Yale, Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton.
Like last week, both races were championship length. The Red faced off against 45 other schools and more than 400 total runners at Paul Short — the most this season.
Once again, senior Perry Mackinnon and junior Rhys Hammond finished first and second for the Red. Mackinnon came in thirteenth place with a time of 23:17.4. Hammond came in 40th, clocking in at 23:34.8. Senior Rishabh Prakash was the next finisher for the team, coming in 55th place. Rounding out Cornell’s top five runners were sophomore Damian Hackett and junior Colden Longley.
These five runners were the point scorers for Cornell at Lock Haven as well. This group continues to show its potential, each finishing with their fastest time of the season. Mackinnon was the star of the day, completing the 8,000 meter race almost a minute faster than he did six days prior.
The team came in eighth place with 317 points, tying Yale. The Red won the tiebreaker against the Bulldogs — Cornell’s sixth runner, sophomore Derek Amicon, finished twelve seconds ahead of Yale’s sixth runner.
“The men had a solid race, but I think we still know there’s room for improvement… it was our first real big fast race of the year and so it’s a good tune up as a good opportunity to see what we got to fix,” said head coach Mike Henderson.
The women did not fare as well in their race. The Red placed 44th out of 46 schools. Freshman Katja Jackson was the first on the team to finish, coming in 215th place with a time of 21:34.6. Freshman Mairead Clas, sophomore Marge Dalseth, senior Olivia Curran and sophomore Augustine Haquet were the rest of the top five finishers. They came in 255th, 273rd, 316th and 319th place respectively. Three of the Red’s top runners did not complete the race.
“We just had some illness on the team… I don’t think the women’s results reflect exactly how we are but it’s just how the day went,” said Henderson.
Cornell’s next race is on Oct. 14 at the ECAC Championship race in New York City.