After finishing first overall last weekend at the Ram Invitational Fordham University, the Quaker men's cross-country team heads to Lehigh University on Saturday for the Paul Short Memorial Run.
Though the 8k meet, held in Bethlehem, Pa., does not feature the toughest competition the team will face this year.
"It's a really quality meet," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "It gives you a very good idea as to where you are as a team early on in the season."
The favorite to take this meet is the College of William & Mary, currently ranked 19th nationally in the Mondo Men's NCAA Divison I Cross Country Poll and first in Penn's Mid-Atlantic Division.
William and Mary most recently finished second to Duke University, now ranked 18th in the nation, at the Lou Onesty/Milton G. Abramson Invitational.
Other schools among the 43 participating teams expected to compete with Penn -- currently ranked eigth in the Mid-Atlantic division -- are division rivals No. 3 Princeton, No. 5 Penn State, No. 9 St. Francis and No. 10 American.
Penn State won the event last year.
Ivy League rivals Yale and Columbia, currently 7th and 10th in their Northeast Division, are also expected to compete for the title. Dartmouth is currently the top-ranked Ivy League squad at 16th nationally.
Powell expects several individual harriers to fare well this weekend.
Quakers sophomore Dusty Lieb, who came in first overall at the Ram Invitational with a time of 26:32, is expected to have another excellent performance after finishing 21st last year at the Paul Short Run. Lieb has been steadily improving over the past year, and will look to prove it this weekend.
Others expected to perform well for the Quakers are sophomore Nolan Tully, who finished 59th overall last year, and senior Erik Malmstrom.
A key loss for the Quakers this weekend is sophomore Stephen Hayes, who will be sidelined due to illness.
Powell is still confident, however.
"Some guys aren't 100 percent," Powell said. "We [still] think we have one of the better teams."
He hopes to perform as well, if not better, than last year's fifth place finish.
"We'll see what happens when, when it happens," Powell said, stressing the unimportance of rankings and expectations in this sport of endurance.
