This past Saturday, the Binghamton men’s and women’s cross country teams competed at the Lehigh Paul Short Run, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — in their largest meet of the year thus far. When the results were tallied, graduate student Sophia Ryan brought home a top 30 result in the women’s gold 6k. Overall, the men placed 33rd out of 42 teams and the women came in 38th out of 44 teams.

“We weren’t looking to try and finish in the top 10 or anything as a team in the gold race,” said Binghamton head coach Annette Acuff. “But it’s a good experience for our kids because when we get to the [NCAA Northeast Regional] meet, it won’t even be nearly that competitive. We’ll have a good shot. [The Lehigh Paul Short Run] kind of simulates that meet.”

Ryan was the highest-placing Bearcat on either side of the action on Saturday. Ryan built off her podium finish at the Iona Meet of Champions, clocking in a time of 21:04.5 to place 29th out of 393 runners. This is Ryan’s second consecutive top-30 result at the Lehigh Paul Short Run as she finished 24th in 2022.

“I think she’s just continuing to challenge herself and trying to get as good of an experience as she can in these higher profile meets,” Acuff said.

Looking to get back into form, coming off of an injury, sophomore Sydney Leitner placed 184th in the women’s gold race with a time of 22:24.0. Crossing the line in 260th was graduate student Sheridan Talada, who finished with a time of 22:59.2. Rounding out the Bearcat women’s top five was freshman Brynn Hogan, with a time of 23:08.2 and senior Lindsay Holland, clocking in at 23:29.9.

“It had rained a lot earlier in the week and with each successive race the course just got worse for kids,” Acuff said. “By the time it got to the women’s race, the gold race, that was the fourth race into the day. So they kind of had it the worst … Now some kids handled it a little better than others. [They] just had a little better experience, but [I’m] kind of hoping to just continue to gain better experience and continue to take another step forward.”

Leading the way for the Bearcat men was senior Josh Stone. Despite dealing with an illness the day of the meet, Stone punched in a time of 25:23.5, good enough for 152nd overall in the men’s gold 8k field.

“You can’t do anything when someone’s sick, so you just do the best that you can,” Acuff said. “And then, you know, he ran fantastic at Iona, and I fully expect that if I race him at Canisius, then I’m sure he’ll run fine. [Stone] is in great shape, and we look forward to seeing him run some further great races throughout the rest of the season.”

Also racing through illness was fifth-year Ryan Guerci, placing in 172nd with a time of 25:32.1. Graduate students Andrew Harrell and Marty Dolan were the third and fourth men’s runners, clocking in at 25:37.8 and 25:45.0 respectively.

Rounding out the Bearcat men’s top five was freshman Luke Miklus, who clocked in at 26:11.3. Acuff specifically noted the freshman performances on Saturday, with an emphasis on Miklus and Hogan, given how big of a stage Lehigh is.

“I thought we had a great race on the freshman men’s side,” Acuff said. “For a lot of those freshmen, it’s their first high-profile meet like that. That’s a tough situation to be in as a freshman. It’s pretty overwhelming, so I thought a lot of our freshmen actually handled it really well.”

Binghamton is next scheduled to compete at the Canisius Alumni Classic. The first race is scheduled for noon on Saturday, Oct. 14 at Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York.