Last Friday, Penn’s men’s and women’s cross country traveled to Bethlehem, Pa. to compete at the Paul Short Run hosted at Lehigh. The event featured 7,000 athletes from high school and college competing across all events.
Just one week prior, the team had standout performances at the Main Line Invitational at Haverford, where seniors Sahil Dodda and Lily Murphy were recognized as Ivy League Athletes of the Week after both finished first in their respective races.
The women’s team had a strong race, beating all the Ivies and placing eighth overall out of 40 teams in the 6-kilometer women's Gold Race. The event featured a standout performance from Murphy, who finished in 10th out of the 352 athletes competing with a time of 20:01.0. Murphy made her season debut at the Main Line Invitational, clinching first in the 5-kilometer race. Senior Lara Cota set a new personal best of 20:51.7 and finished in 55th, with junior Gabrielle Jones and senior Anna Weirich following closely behind in 56th and 62nd, respectively. Freshman Isabella Rodriguez finished at 99th, giving the team an overall score of 282. Cota and the team credited their performances to the camaraderie on the team.
“Everyone in our group really just gave it our all, and gave their best shot that day. And so I feel like we just worked really, really well as a unit," Cota said.
“I think all of us are in a really great mentality, like we had a really great race yesterday and now we’re all taking the time to reflect on what we want to work on as a group," Cota added. “We’re really committed to keeping up this positive streak and keeping up with our training, and just keep doing what we’re doing, because it seems to be really working.”
The men’s team placed 24th out of 40 in the Gold 8-kilometer race. While it wasn’t the result they wanted, there were several great performances across the team, namely junior Kofi Fordjour, who placed 83rd with a time of 24:19.7 — his personal best in the 8-kilometer race.
“I think yesterday it was a solid result, but we definitely wanted more individually and as a team. And so we’re building towards that, [the] level we want to be at come the Ivy League championships at the end of October," Fordjour said.
Following closely behind Fordjour was junior George Keen and sophomore Shane Murphy, who placed 139th and 142nd, respectively. Freshman Shamus Larnard had a strong debut with a time of 24:49.1 to finish 149th. The team's overall points were 627.
RELATED:
Penn men’s and women’s cross country impress at Main Line Invitational
Penn women's cross country wins season opener at the New Jersey Jam
“I think we are really good at pack running, and so I think we kind of strayed away from that running this meet, but I think that's something we are going to have to do in the future," Fordjour added.
Over the course of the last couple races, the team has also been building momentum to keep doing better in preparation for the Ivy League Championships.
“I think we’ve had two races where we sort of have built to a level that we can sort of compete for some top spots at the Ivy League championships, individually and as a team. And so I think that going forward, just making sure we do all the right things and prepare ourselves for what’s down the line is gonna be super important," said Fordjour.
The Quakers will compete at the Princeton Fall Classic on Oct. 17 and Haverford Invitational on Oct. 24. They will take part in the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships on Oct. 31.
