Ready For The Short Run

The eyes of the college cross country world will turn to Bethlehem, Pa., this weekend for the Brooks Paul Short Invitational and Armory Track will be there.

More than 100 colleges and universities will compete on the Lehigh University course in a total of six college races, three for each gender — the Gold, the Brown and the White. The college program will kick off with the Gold races, men at 11 am and the women following at 11:45 am.

The women's Gold race will be a barn-burner as three of the nation's top five teams — No. 1 Georgetown, No. 3 Providence and No. 5 Villanova, all of the Big East — will go head-to-head against each other as well as No. 9 Duke, No. 12 Syracuse and No. 16 Virginia.

The Hoyas — led by NCAA runnerup Emily Infeld and All-Americans Emily Jones and Maddie Chambers — hold down the nation's top spot in the USTFCCCA rankings with 10 of the 12 first-place votes, but Coach Chris Miltenberg isn't predicting a victory this weekend.

"We're looking at this weekend as another great step in our preparation for November," he offered. "We're not running our full team yet this Friday, so I anticipate there are a few teams who will be in front of us. All-Americans Emily Infeld and Maddie Chambers, Rachel Schneider and Katie McCafferty will be opening up their first races as Pre-Nationals in two weeks. Senior Claire Richardson, who ran great at Penn State two weeks ago, will not race again until Pre-Nationals as well."

Providence, with veteran coach Ray Treacy, have one of the remaining first-place picks as junior All-American Shelby Greaney (Suffern, N.Y.) looks to take a shot at the top spot this weekend.

Villanova is the defending NCAA champion and its star, senior Sheila Reid, is the defending individual national champion. But Coach Gina Procaccio's eggs aren't all in a single basket as All-American Bogdana Mimic and super soph Emily Lipari (Greenvale, N.Y.) are back.

Seven nationally-ranked men's teams will lineup in the Gold race, led by the University of Oklahoma and Sooner All-American Kevin Schwab. Coach Martin Smith's crew was fifth at the NCAAs last fall and are currently ranked fourth by the USTFCCCA. The No. 12 Princeton Tigers are the next-highest team, but the Orange and Black are running a split squad this weekend and neither Donn Cabral nor freshman phenom Edward Owens will be in Bethlehem. The Princeton women, ranked 22nd, are in a similar split-squad weekend with All-American Alex Banfich running elsewhere.

The always-entertaining Robby Andrews of No. 19 Virginia will be ready to run with new teammate Mark Amirault, a Princeton grad with a final year of eligibility. Coach Jason Vigilante, a native of Morristown, N.J., has gravitated to events in the Northeast and is a proponent of The Armory.

The other four ranked teams in the men's Gold race each hail from the Big East — No. 15 Syracuse, led by Patrick DuPont; No. 17 Providence, with All-American Lee Carey; No. 18 Villanova, paced by Mathew Mildenhall; and No. 22 Georgetown, featuring U.S. Junior steeplechase champion Max Darrah.

Of New York City interest are No. 4 Iona, which is not running its 'A' team (meaning no Leonard Korir) in the Brown race and Columbia's Kyle Merber in the Gold race as he continues his comeback from a freak injury that sidelined him all last year.

Spectator parking is available at the Stabler Arena, which is identified on the venue map. Handicap parking will be permitted at Goodman Stadium.

Below is a full schedule of events:

All awards ceremonies will take place inside Goodman Stadium.