BETHLEHEM, Pa. - On Friday afternoon, the Manhattan College men's and women's cross country teams competed at one of the largest annual meets in the Northeast, the Brooks Paul Short Run at Lehigh University. Running against an elite field, both squads performed well. The Manhattan men secured 36th place in the "Brown" race, while the women's team was 39th in the "Brown" race.
For the third time in as many meets this season, the men's squad was led by Tom Voorheis (Syracuse, N.Y.). Voorheis placed 131st overall over the 8000-meter course, posting a time of 27:16. Manhattan's second finisher was Anthony Colasurdo (Lanoka Harbor, N.J.), who took 151st in 27:27. Billy Wilkens (Kenmore, Wash.) finished 158th in a time of 27:30, while Tom Daly (Smithtown, N.Y.) was 196th (27:52). Zack Price (Warwick, N.Y.) rounded out the Jaspers' top five. He secured 219th place with a 28:06 clocking. Crossing the line almost together to complete Manhattan's top seven were Mikael Rojeras (Sala, Sweden) (243rd, 28:19) and Salim Corbin (Patterson, N.J.) (247th, 28:22). Manhattan ended up 36th in the team standings with 855 points. Iona won the "Brown" race with 125 team points.
On the women's side, Maria Jangsten (Gothenburg, Sweden) led the way with a 106th-place finish. She ran the 6000-meter course in 24:00. Ending up as Manhattan's No. 2 finisher for the first time in her career was Alyssa Windle (San Bernardino, Calif.). She captured 215th place in a time of 24:56. Following closely behind Windle in 221st place was Meghan Hayes (Brooklyn, N.Y.), who notched a time of 25:06. Janie Turek (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) came in just behind Hayes, finishing 223rd in 25:07, while Meghan Marro (Cherry Hill, N.J.) took 234th in 25:19. Johanna Petruski (Toms River, N.J.) (238th, 25:22) and Shelby Niles (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) (251st, 25:43) rounded out the Jaspers' top seven. In a deep field featuring 44 teams and nearly 400 runners, Manhattan finished 39th with 999 team points. Iona's women also collected 125 points to win the "Brown" race.
The Paul Short Run was Manhattan's final competition before the Jaspers' championship season gets underway. The first of those meets, the Metropolitan Championships, will take place at Van Cortlandt Park on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
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