WVU Wins Paul Short Invitational
October 03, 2008 04:21 PM | General
October 3, 2008
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| Marie-Louise Asselin |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Junior Marie-Louise Asselin set both a meet and course record with a time of 19:38 at the Paul Short Invitational to lead the No. 9 West Virginia University cross country team to a first place finish today in Bethlehem, Pa.
“This is probably the most prestigious race and course that we run in,” comments Head Coach Sean Cleary. “This race features the greatest runners and it was a perfect day to race. I’m thrilled because the team raced what I would consider a near perfect race in terms of the team showing. The great thing is we still have room for improvement. I like where we are sitting right now.”
WVU finished with 47 total points to beat BIG EAST rival Villanova, who placed second with 78 points. Baylor placed third with 94 points followed by Wisconsin (105) in fourth and Syracuse (150), who finished fifth.
WVU’s finish marked the first time that the Mountaineers have ever won the annual race. This year’s race featured 43 teams.
Asselin’s finish broke the meet record by 21 seconds, previously set by last season’s NCAA Champion Sally Kipyego from Texas Tech in 2007. The Sarnia, Ontario, native also broke the course record which was set by Georgetown’s Melissa Grelli at 19:50. Grelli beat Asselin in last season’s BIG EAST Championship.
Clara Grandt finished fifth (20:09) followed by Keri Bland (20:22) in ninth, Ahna Lewis (20:49) in 15th and Kate Harrison (20:53) in 17th placing five Mountaineers in the top 20 finishers out of 301 runners.
Kaylyn Christopher finished 38th with a time of 21:24 followed by Alison Spiker (21:56) who finished 82nd.
The Mountaineers will next race in the Penn State National Invitational on Oct. 17. The race is set to begin at 10 a.m. in University Park, Pa.
