Rakoc Has Top Saint Finish at Paul Short Invitational
by:
Tara FreemanSam Rakoc was the top Saint finisher at Lehigh on Friday
Sept. 28: Senior Sam Rakoc had an 86th place finish and St. Lawrence University's men's cross country team finished 31st in a 37-team field at the 2012 Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh on Friday.
The Saints were third among Division III teams as Haverford, ranked second nationally, was 17th and Johns Hopkins finished 28th. The race was won by Villanova with 69 points with the College of William and Mary second with 100, Georgetown third with 101 and Dartmouth fourth with 175. The Saints finished with 875 points, seven in front of Amherst and the University of New Hampshire which tied for 32nd.
Rakoc ran 25:23 for the top Saint finish in the 332 runner field, posting one of his top times ever. Rookie Spencer Patterson scored 145th in 25:55, Zach Nelson was 191st in 26:20, Trevor Bibb 211th in 26:33, and Aaron Tompkins scored 242nd in 27:13 to complete the Saint scoring.
Brendan Courneene finished 308th and scored 251st with a time of 27:33 and Scott Smolensky was 323rd and scored 256th in 28:19. Harrison Sloan was 329th in 28:41.
Philip Marshall was the top finisher for the Saints in the collegiate open race, finishing 65th in 26:34, Jeff Mogavero was the next open finisher in 121st in 27:13. Steve Petramale was 135th in 27:23, Landen Elliott-Knaggs was 143rd in 27:27 and Ellis Toll was 280th in 29:08 in a 394 runner field in the non-scoring race.
"Most of our first year guys really stepped up and handled themselves with poise in such a large and prestigious event. Patterson was particularly impressive as he set our first year record for the Lehigh course," said saint coach John Newman.
The Saints will return to Division III competition on Oct. 6 when they host the Ronald C. Hoffmann Invitational.