2025 Catholic University Cross Country Meet 3
The Catholic University cross country season for 2025 had its third meet today at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The meet for Catholic University was on the campus of Lehigh University. The meet featured about 100 teams, so it was a day for personal times for the Cardinal runners.
Fortunately, the weather was nice for the run, though it became a little warm for the afternoon races. The Catholic University men raced at 12:30 p.m. and the women raced at 1:15 p.m. In the races that the Cardinals ran, the “White” races, New York University won both the men’s and women’s races. Do you think there were some personal records for the Catholic University runners?
Catholic University In the Paul Short Invitational
The race today, called the Paul Short Invitational, was at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The men’s 8K began at 12:30 p.m. for the Cardinal runners, and the women’s 8K race (which is 4.9 miles) was at 1:15 p.m., or immediately after. That area of Pennsylvania is very hilly, but the course was not that bad.
In the men’s eight-kilometer race, there were 10 runners for Catholic University. Joe Wolfe, a senior, was the top finisher on the day for the Cardinals. Wolfe got a personal record time of 25:42.7. It was the fourth-best performance in the 8-kilometer time in school history.
Joey Locke, a junior, came in behind Wolfe, clocking another personal record time of 26:26.5. His time was the 11th-best performance in program history. Tim Sweeney, a freshman, was the next best runner for Catholic, competing in the 8-kilometer for the first time with a time of 26:55.2. That time made him the 16th-best performer in program history.
Peter Winter, a sophomore, finished with a time of 27.23.4. David Stango, a junior, finished with a time of 27.27.4. Tim Brown, a freshman, finished with a time of 27.50.8. Daniel Ponciano, a senior, came in next for Catholic University in a time of 28:40.8. Brady Falcon, a freshman, finished next in 29:18.2. The final male finisher for the Cardinals was Patrick Morris, a sophomore, in a time of 30.03.5. Michael Brunet, a talented freshman, did not start.
In the women’s varsity six-kilometer race, the Cardinals finished 34th. Freshman Olivia Sobkowicz finished the race in 21.58.9. Junior Laurel McMahon finished 115th in 22.53.7.0. Brigid Cavanaugh, a freshman, finished in 24:03.2. Alexa Grassi, a junior, finished in 23:41.3. Catherine Lorelle, a sophomore, finished in 25:01.0. Erin Roche, a freshman, was next in 25:36.4. Sara Roberts, another freshman, finished in 27.04.5. Isabel Doran, also a freshman, finished in a time of 27:07.8.
Other Races
There were some open races that the Catholic competed in. The men’s open race took place at 9:30 am. In that race, in 26:59.6. In the Women’s open race, Mia LaMarra finished 26.46.8. Those were good times. Ironically, the times are almost equal. Aside from those two runners, everyone else was crammed into one of four ‘color’ races.
Conclusion
There were too many teams in this race for team scores to be meaningful (for instance, there were 1,382 male finishers and 1,356 female finishers), but some great personal records were set. The head coach of the cross country and track team, Steve Rahn, said, “They did really well today.” Other than that, he is living the life of a small college coach of a minor sport.
On Friday evening, he was driving a van to and from the meet. It is fair to wonder if all college cross country meets are like this, large and with the head coaches of most teams doing the lion’s share of the menial work for the team.
