Men's cross country wins Lehigh Paul Short race

The Hoosiers traveled to Pennsylvania to compete in the Lehigh Paul Short run Saturday.

The No. 15 ranked men’s cross country team finished first overall in the college gold race. Five Indiana runners placed in top 30 for the men.

The women’s team finished sixth overall but had a second place finish out senior Samantha Ginther. Junior Kelsey Duerksen finished in the top ten as well with a seventh place finish.

The top runner for the men’s team was junior JR Ricker who finished the 8-kilometer race in tenth place with a time of 24 minutes and 12 seconds.

Finishing second for the Hoosiers was senior Robby Nierman with a time of 14 minutes and 23 seconds giving him a 13th place overall finish.

Coming in two seconds behind Nierman was his teammate, sophomore Rorey Hunter, who finished in 15th place overall. Freshman Carl Smith and junior Evan Esselink were the other two runners who finished in the top 30 for the Hoosiers. Smith crossed the line in 21st place and Esselink finished in 30th place.

The men’s final score was 89 points.

Three of the five teams that placed in front of the women’s team were ranked in the top 12.
Georgetown, who finished first, is ranked  No. 8. Villanova placed as the third overall team in the competition and are ranked  No. 12 in the nation.

Villanova placed above Cornell even though Cornell is ranked higher than them at No. 10.

The men’s team defeated two other colleges who were ranked in the top 20. No. 20 ranked Georgetown placed third and No. 11 ranked Iona College fell to 39th place.

Follow reporter Frank Bonner on Twitter @Frank_Bonner1.