Women's Cross Country 10/1/2016 4:42:00 PM

Purple Eagles Set Personal Bests At Paul Short Run

Men's Results | Women's Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Several Purple Eagles had decent individual performances at the 43^rd Annual Paul Short Run on Saturday.

Meet Marks (Men)

For the third straight meet, Tyler Van Leeuwen led the Purple Eagles. Van Leeuwen ran the 8K event in 26:17 to tie a personal best. He finished 150 out of 401 runners.
Niagara's five other runners all set new personal-best times: Matt Whitworth (27:17), Sergio Cruz (27:20), Ethan Graves (27:27), Ryan DeLola (27:35), and Aidan Russell (28:02).
Niagara placed 43rd out of 45 teams.

Meet Marks (Women)

Caroline Hampton led the women with a personal-best time of 22:49 which is the third fastest time in program history. Hampton placed 118 out of 373 runners.
Kayla Murphy was second on the team with a time of 24:01.
Aly Orfano (24:17), Sarah Grubbs (24:49) and Megan Helf (24:59) all had personal-best times.
NU finished 39th out of 42 teams in the 6K event

Coach's Corner

We were thrilled with today's results as a whole. Paul Short is a fantastic race to be a part of and after braving the really hot and humid conditions at Notre Dame, the men and women needed a nice confidence booster to show them they're at the level of fitness that their workouts have indicated.
For the women, we had four new personal bests. Grubbs, Hampton, Helf, and Orfano improved greatly on their prior 6k PRs (all set a year ago). All of them have been sitting on that capability, but its validation for them when they were able to actualize how fit they've become. It also shows them they're in a great position to continue their improvement as we prepare for conference a month from now. For Caroline, especially, it was a race she's been waiting to put together for the past couple of years, and so we know how much it meant to her to break through the 23-minute barrier. Julia had a really nice break-through, thanks in part to Aly setting a fast clip at the beginning.
On the men's side, our freshmen have continued to thrive. They just keep getting better not only in term of fitness, but in terms of synchronicity which is so crucial for cross country. The really awesome part is that they executed their race plan perfectly and worked together as a group. We also have to recognize returner Cruz as he has been a keystone for that group of guys. The fact that our time spread between our No. 2 and No. 5 runners was less than 20 seconds is the closest our guys have been in the past three years. We're also glad that Van Leeuwen has continued to rebound after a rough patch last year and we anticipate he'll be in the 25 minutes territory come MAACs, as the rest of the guys will solidly be in the 26s.

Up Next

The Purple Eagles' next meet will be the Canisius Alumni Classic on Oct. 15.

Stay connected with the Purple Eagles through social media. Follow Niagara Athletics on Twitter @NUPurpleEagles and for cross country updates at @NiagaraXCTF. Check in with the Purple Eagles on Facebook/PurpleEagles and on Instagram @NUPurpleEagles.

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Players Mentioned

Sergio Cruz: 5' 6"; Sophomore

Tyler Van Leeuwen: 6' 4"; Senior

Ryan DeLola: 6' 0"; Freshman

Ethan Graves: 5' 11"; Freshman

Aidan Russell: 5' 11"; Freshman

Sarah Grubbs: 5' 5"; Junior

Caroline Hampton: 5' 5"; Senior

Megan Helf: Senior

Kayla Murphy: 5' 2"; Senior

Players Mentioned

Sergio Cruz
: 5' 6"; Sophomore

Tyler Van Leeuwen
: 6' 4"; Senior

Ryan DeLola
: 6' 0"; Freshman

Ethan Graves
: 5' 11"; Freshman

Aidan Russell
: 5' 11"; Freshman

Sarah Grubbs
: 5' 5"; Junior

Caroline Hampton
: 5' 5"; Senior

Megan Helf
: Senior

Kayla Murphy
: 5' 2"; Senior