M. X-Country has decent showing

The men's cross country team placed 10th out of 24 teams at the 22nd annual Paul Short Memorial cross country Invitational at Lehigh on Saturday. Iona won the meet, followed by Penn State, St. Joseph's and La Salle. The Quakers were led by junior captain Matt Wilkinson, who placed seventh out of 167 finishers. Kurt Sprowls, Aaron McCommons and Williams Murphy rounded out the team's top five. Penn tried to follow a pack strategy, in which all the runners stay close to each other during the race. The team's weakness is in the middle. In Saturday's race the last three scorers stayed together, but the Quakers' first and second places were far apart. After Wilkinson, the second Penn runner -- Sprowls -- was 52nd, then 68, 69 and 71. Iona placed first and second, with all of its top five finishing in the first 18. Penn State had all five of its scorers in the top 38. Penn coach Charlie Powell was neither excited nor disappointed by his team's results. "We did adequately, but nothing outstanding. We had decent times on a wet sloppy course," he said. The team is still looking toward the final meets of the season. "We're on the right track for where we're going for the end of the year. This race's times are a good indication of where we're going to be at the end of the season. That's good," Powell said. The competition at Lehigh was hard. "A couple of teams ran real well. It would have been nice to pick them off," Powell added. This included a tight race with Syracuse, which scored 256 points, just edging out the Quakers by four. Georgetown and Yale were also within reach. "When we finally peak, we should be fine," said Powell. With only three races left, that time should be soon. Next Saturday Penn races at the TFA/USA CC Series 5K in Boston.