Black Knights Complete Paul Short Run

Saturday, October 5

Bethlehem, PA

11 AM

Army West Point

Paul Short Invitational

Black Knights Complete Paul Short Run

October 05, 2019 | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Army West Point cross country team competed at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University on Saturday.

The men's cross country team competed first and placed seventh in the 44-team field with a score of 289. Utah State took home the win with 49 points.

Senior captain Ben Petrella was the team's top finisher, placing 29th with a time of 23:57.1. He was one of three Cadets to finish in the top 50 with Robbie Santoyo finishing 42nd and Marshall Beatty finishing 47th.

On the women's side, the team totaled 747 points to place in 21st among the 38-team field. Senior captain Sam Coletti was the highest placing Black Knight at 114th. She was followed by freshman Alexandra Gibbs who continues to impress in her rookie campaign.

COACH'S CORNER: Head Coach Mike Smith
(On men's meet)
"Disappointing day for our men's team. We have trained well and we have prepared well but we failed to execute today and that cost us. Teams that we defeated two weeks ago beat us today, so that doesn't sit too well with me. Our top guys struggled more than what I would have expected and that hurt our overall point total. Ben and Robbie did a nice job of getting into the race, but maybe they were a bit further back than they would have liked.

We had hoped to come here and beat some teams from other regions and thereby help ourselves later in the year. We didn't do that. Now the margin for error going forward is much smaller. Our guys know what is at stake. They understand that there is ebb and flow throughout a season and today we took a hit. Although the top guys were a bit off the back, half of the team was pretty good today. Luca Mazzanti has a nice breakthrough and our 6-7-8 guys took a nice step forward. Once we get everybody clicking, I think we will be as good as we can be. The championship season starts now and in the overall scheme of things, we have the right group. We just need to stand a little taller the next time out."

(On women's meet)
"We ran really well today. In fact, this is the best team race we have run since our runner up finish at the Patriot League meet in 2017. We have struggled in recent years to compete with the Ivy League schools and we haven't really shown that we can win a Patriot League team title, but today we demonstrated that we can do those things. Boston beat us today after we beat them 2 weeks ago. We beat brown university today after they beat us two weeks ago. There is ebb and flow to this sport and you have to balance the ups and downs. This was an extremely competitive meet with multiple ranked teams, so for us to finish in the middle is a strong indicator of our competitive level. We were solid today and we held our own.

I thought individually we did a nice job of racing today and that we were very focused. Those two things alone are improvements in our performance in Boston. Samantha rebounded nicely from two weeks ago and led us today. She has been doing that consistently in practice, but today was the first time in a long time that she was our top finisher in competition. She has come a long way in the last few years and I think her best days are still ahead of her. Allie Gibbs was terrific today. She has been getting better and better and took a big step forward today. She comes from a very small school in Missouri and is new to this level of competition so to see her rise to the level of the competition speaks to her competitive spirit. She has a bright future. Morgan Chewning-Kulick had a really solid race today. She is one of our young leaders and has impressed me with her commitment and process this fall. She has real grit and determination and she will just keep getting better and better as we go forward. We had three women come in as a pack after Morgan and that was impressive to see in a race with 296 finishers. Ramsey Wagner, Dominque Shultz and Mika Andrews connected in the race and pushed each other throughout. Overall, We can improve on a few things here and there but I think we are in a good spot right now as we enter the championship season.

MEN'S TOP FINISHERS:
29. Ben Petrella – 23:57.1
42. Robbie Santoyo – 24:08.9
47. Marshall Beatty – 24:11.5

WOMEN'S TOP FINISHERS:
114. Sam Coletti – 21:22.8
138. Mika Andrews – 21:32.7
146. Morgan Chewning-Kulick - 21:38.8

FULL RESULTS: http://results.tfmeetpro.com/Mitchell_Timing/46_th_Lehigh_Paul_Short_Run/#event8

UP NEXT: Army will host service academy rival Navy in the Army-Navy Star Meet on Oct. 18 at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.