On Friday, the Binghamton cross country teams traveled to Lehigh to compete in one of the most competitive collegiate meets in the country. In spite of some of the top-ranked schools in the nation appearing at the Lehigh Paul Short Run, two BU athletes still battled their way toward the apex of the leaderboard in the highly contested gold races.

“It was a great experience for both teams,” said Binghamton head coach Annette Acuff. “We go to that meet because it’s very competitive … It really simulates our NCAA Regional Meet.”

BU’s highest-placing male athlete was redshirt senior Dan Schaffer who secured a ninth-place finish against 356 other runners in the 8K race. Schaffer’s time of 23:40.60 earned him the second-highest finish in Paul Short Run gold race history by a BU male athlete.

“[Schaffer’s] never really had a chance to compete in the gold race,” Acuff said. “He’s always missed it for one reason or another. That’s his first time racing in that high-profile race, and I think he handled it extremely well.”

Erik van Ingen still holds the highest placement in the race when he finished eighth in 2010. However, van Ingen ran a time of 24:04, whereas Schaffer finished nearly 24 seconds quicker.

Schaffer spearheaded a Binghamton men’s side that finished 13th out of 40 teams in the gold race. While far behind Schaffer’s ninth-place finish, junior Ryan Guerci’s time of 24:25.00 to take 58th overall still earned him a spot far above the majority of the competition. Additionally, sophomore Josh Stone was close behind in 67th, clocking in at 24:30.50. Both of their finishes helped keep the Bearcats down to a 419-point total that was shy of William and Mary’s 417 tally in 12th for the gold 8K.

“[Stone] is only a freshman eligibility-wise,” Acuff said. “Last year he only competed in one cross country meet at Vermont and didn’t go on to compete at the conference championships.”

Leading the charge for the BU women’s side was redshirt senior Emily Mackay, who responded to Schaffer’s ninth position by posting a 15th-place finish later that afternoon in the 6K race. Competing against 341 other runners with a time of 20:25.90, Mackay tied for the second-highest all-time finish among female BU athletes in the gold race. Katie Radzik holds the highest all-time Bearcat placement at 13th in 2005, as well as the now-tied second-highest finish at 15th the following year. However, Mackay’s race hosted over 100 more runners.

“[Mackay] ran well too, that was her first big race,” Acuff said. “Our goal right now is to get her running her best time at regionals. She’s been training pretty hard and maybe she felt a little rusty, so to speak, going into her first big race. But she looked good overall.”

Accompanying Mackay in Binghamton’s top-two finishes was senior Aziza Chigatayeva who placed 58th overall. The Bearcat posted a time of 21:13.50 and finished 128 spots ahead of the third-highest ranked BU athlete. The women’s team finished 26th with 667 points overall.

Although Schaffer and Mackay both finished above all other competing America East (AE) athletes, Acuff isn’t focusing on the conference competition at this point in the season.

“We are a team sport, and we’re also an individual sport,” Acuff said. “We don’t focus on where we’re at compared to other schools in the conference … We don’t ‘defend’ another team. We can’t control what they’re doing. Sometimes we get so caught up on what everyone else is doing that we forget to work on ourselves.”

Yet to compete this season is UMass Lowell graduate student Kaley Richards. During last season’s AE conference meet, Richards battled Mackay to the finish line and ultimately finished second.

“[Richards] ran fantastic last year and [Mackay] had to give her everything she had to beat her,” Acuff said. “It’ll be a battle.”

Both BU cross country teams are slated to continue their seasons at the Princeton Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 16. The races will take place in Princeton, New Jersey and start times are yet to be announced.