The Emory University men's and women's cross country teams competed at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, PA on Friday morning where both the 8k mens and 6k women's program records were broken. The men's team, competing in the 8k, registered a second place finish while the women, competing in the 6k, finished in 13th.
The No. 21 ranked men were phenomenal across the board, each of the scorers finishing in under 25:00 minutes and all finishing in the top 60 in the field of 403 runners. After winning their first two meets of the season, the Eagles turned in a second place finish out of 45 teams recording a score of 166. Conference foe No. 13 Carnegie Mellon won the race with a score of 114 while No. 19 Haverford rounded out the podium with a 187 score.
Senior Spencer Moore had the best day of his career with the Eagles, finishing in 16th place while recording a 24:27 time which established the new program record for the fastest 8k time beating out Adam Carlson's time of 24:33 set all the way back in 2000. Senior Brett Lucas finished just behind Moore with a time of 24:28, also breaking the previous program record, to finish in 19th place.
Elsewhere for the men, sophomore David Evans had a spectacular day of his own, finishing in 29th and crossing the finish line in 24:36, shattering his personal best time in the process and now sits with the sixth fastest time in program history. Junior Scott Masterson continued his breakout season running a 24:49, faster than any runner for the Eagles in the 2021 season, and finishing 45th. Rounding out the scorers for the Eagles was graduate Ethan Thompson who finished the race in 24:57 which saw him in 57th place.
The No. 28 women had a rock-solid day finishing in 13th place out of 46 teams after recording a score of 384. No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (82) took home the Paul Short Run crown while George Washington (214) and No. 27 Lynchburg (251) completed the podium.
Senior Annika Urban has been a dominant force for the Eagles all season and today was no different as she won her third consecutive meet to begin the season with a 6k time of 20:22 which paced the next closest runner in the field by nearly 25 seconds. Urban shattered the program record for the 6k, previously set by Gabrielle Stravach in 2017, beating it out by 37 seconds helping Urban to further cement her legacy with the Eagles.
Elsewhere for the women, freshman Luna McCauley had a strong meet, recording her highest finish for the Eagles this season while posting a time of 22:34. Sophomore Liesl Scherrer finished just behind McCauley recording a time of 22:39 to put her in 87th place in the field of 383 runners. Junior Helena Kummings finished inside the top 100, coming in 95th place after registering a time of 22:42. Rounding out the scorers for the Eagles was junior Lily Taylor whose time of 22:57 was good for 129th place.
The Eagles will see the other half of their team in action tomorrow at the Alexander Asics Invitational in Fairburn, GA with the women set to get underway at 7:50 AM while the men will begin at 9:00 AM.