Women's cross-country improves at Paul Short invite

Sometimes the best effort comes as a result of working together.

The Penn women's cross country team can surely attest to this.

Junior Abbi Gleeson finished 12th and Elaina Lord was just a place behind at Saturday's Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh.

With less than a second separating their times of 21:53.14 and 21:54.20, the two runners were the top finishers for the Quakers, who placed sixth overall.

"It was great to have Elaina up there with me, and we pushed each other," Gleeson said. "It was something I didn't have last year. It really helped to have her right behind me, letting me know that I was going at the right pace, and that I had it in me to finish.

"I was a little disappointed with my performance because it was about the same as it was last year, and my goal is obviously to improve in every race. We've been running a lot more mileage recently, so it was a little hard to get used to it. I think it'll make us better at the end of the year."

The team was also helped by the 37th-place finish of Kristen Koch, who ran a 22:30.12 on the 6K course. Christine Myers followed with a time of 23:12.96 to place 67th overall, and Claire Duncan was the team's fifth finisher at 23:22.63.

Rounding out the Quakers were Jillian Connell with a time of 24:12.70 and Courtney Epps, who finished in 24:13.77.

"I think we had our first race with a team strategy to work together for the first mile and then go with whatever we had for the rest," Duncan said. "The team did well, and Abbi and Elaina stayed together for the whole race, and that was an awesome accomplishment for them. Christine Myers, the freshman, is stepping up and doing a great job."

The Red and Blue moved up two places from last year's competition, where they finished eighth.

"The big thing that's new this year is that we have a real pack of people who can work together, which is critical to a cross country team," Duncan said.

"I think [the team's finish is] right on target," Penn coach Gwen Harris said. "We have a plan for the race. One of our expectations is to run as a pack.

"The closer the individuals are to each other, the better we're going to fare in any meet. Hopefully, we'll get a little bit better every time we race. I think they did an excellent job."

Overall, 33 teams competed at the meet. Penn State won, with three of its runners placing in the top 10. West Virginia placed second, in part due to the first-place finish of Megan Metcalfe at 20:51.94.

The Quakers next travel to Belmont Plateau for the La Salle Invitational on October 5.

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