Valeri Posts Program-Best at Paul Short Invitational

Friday, September 29

Bethlehem, PA

9:30 AM

Army West Point

Paul Short Invitational

Valeri Posts Program-Best at Paul Short Invitational

September 29, 2017 | Men's Cross Country

Bethlehem, PA – Behind senior John Valeri's time of 24:05, the Army West Point men's cross country team placed seventh out of 40 competing schools at the Paul Short Invitational on Friday morning.

ARMY HIGHLIGHTS AND GAME NOTES

The Black Knights bested their performance from 2016, moving up four spots.
The squad was led by Valeri, who recorded a time of 24:05, the fastest by an Army runner at the Lehigh Cross Country Course since 2008.
Freshman Daniel Mazzei rounded out the top five for Army after crossing at 24:50, which was good for 99th out of 359.
Six of the top seven for Army bested their times at this course from a season ago.

Coach's Corner:

"Our men's team ran well today," said Head Coach Mike Smith. "This was probably the best team performance an Army team has had at this meet in quite some time. The competition is always good this time of year and today was no exception. We had hoped for a top ten finish and we did that. We had hoped to beat some of the teams from other regions that were ranked ahead of us and we did that."

"We had four guys run times that are in the top seven all-time for Army West Point on this course including John Valeri, who ran the fastest Army time ever here at the Lehigh course. The SEC, ACC, Big Ten, and PAC 12 were all represented, and we beat all of those teams. While we didn't achieve all of our goals, we took a big step forward. We have to continue to have high expectations and these guys will try to reach them. Our effort here was outstanding."

Runner's Words:
"As a team, we competed at a higher level than we have seen in the past few years," said Valeri. "We executed our plan and everyone ran really well against the high caliber teams we competed against today. I was focused on beating the teams that we pointed out prior to our event. We wanted to compete with the Ivy League teams, the Big 10, and the ACC. The goal was to perform and get the lowest seed I could for my team."

INDIVIDUAL FINISHES
24. Johnny Valeri, Sr 24:05
42. Robbie Santoyo, So           24:18
57. Roman Ollar, So                 24:28
62. Ben Petrella, So                 24:30
99. Daniel Mazzei, Fr                24:50
149. Mikey Singer, Jr                25:10
166. Luca Mazzanti, Fr             25:15

FIELD RESULTS (TOP 10)
1. Utah State               (119)
2. Georgetown (167)
3. Adams State (179)
4. Penn                        (187)
5. Navy                        (193)
6. Liberty                      (279)
7. Army West Point     (284)
8. Connecticut              (302)
9. Wake Forest             (318)
10. Georgia Tech         (348)

Results Link: http://runhigh.com/2017RESULTS/R092917AD.html

UP NEXT:
Army travels home to Wappingers Falls, N.Y., on Saturday, Oct. 14 for the annual Army-Navy Star Meet, which is part of the Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA.

For more information on Army West Point men's cross country, visit GoArmyWestPoint.com and follow @ArmyWP_TrackXC on Twitter.