Cross Country competes at Paul Short Run as Urban wins school award

By Cassandra Ercoli, Sports Reporter

In what was the largest event for the Blue and Gold thus far, the Canisius men’s cross country team placed 38th, while the women’s side claimed 35th in the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pa. 

With a total of 158 teams on both sides, the meet was split into four divisions: gold, white, brown and green. The Canisius men’s team competed in the gold division, while the women competed in the brown division. 

In the men’s 8K event, senior Kyle Urban turned in the Griffs’ best performance with a time of 24:37.8, finishing 117th. Urban’s time topped his career best he set at the National Catholic Invitational just over two weeks ago by a margin of 8.8 seconds. Urban was also announced as one of Canisius’ student-athletes of the month alongside volleyball’s Kalia Reisma.

The next Golden Griffin to cross the finish line came nearly one hundred spots later when sophomore Nathaniel Fisher finished in 212th with a time of 25:17.7. Completing Canisius’ top-three male runners was senior Brody Jones, who stopped the clock at 25:54.0 (280th).

Of the 344 runners in the gold division, Harvard’s Sam Burgess claimed the top spot with a time of 23:18.6, just beating out Georgetown’s Birhanu Harriman by less than a second. It was the Hoyas, however, who claimed the gold division’s team title, with runners finishing in second, fifth, 12th, 23rd and 60th.

On the women’s side, sophomore Clara Sundberg paced the Griffs in the 6K event with a career-best time of 23:15.2, an improvement of more than thirty seconds, and good for 157th place. Freshman Julia Gullo followed Sundberg with a time of 23:28.0 (174th), while junior Brooke Podgorski rounded out Canisius’ top-three female performers with her own career-best time of 23:56.5, which was good enough for 221st.

In the women’s field of 328 runners, New Hampshire’s Ruth White took home top individual honors with her time of 20:29.4, 12.1 seconds clear of second-place Tayla Gunton (Iona). George Washington claimed the team title in the women’s brown division, with MAAC foe Iona claiming second. 

The Griffs will have one final tune-up at the Canisius Alumni Classic on Oct. 18 in Buffalo before heading to the MAAC Outdoor Cross Country Championships on Nov. 1 in Montgomery, N.Y.

Photo Courtesy of Canisius Athletics