File- UConn men’s cross country takes a lap around the George J Sherman Family Sports Complex. (Charlotte Lao/ The Daily Campus)
After UConn men’s cross country’s strong outing at the Minutemen Invitational at UMass, Amherst, the Huskies failed to keep that momentum going at Lehigh University’s Paul Short College Invitational over the weekend.
The Huskies finished 19th out of the 41 schools participating at the meet. Utah State finished first, while Virginia Tech finished second and Army-West point finished third. For the overall event, UConn’s dual meet score tallied to 22 wins. Virginia Tech led all schools with 40 wins while Utah State was just behind with 39. The Huskies finished 14th in the one-mile race with a time of 4:57.
Even with the mediocre outing, there were still many stellar individual performances by the Huskies. Senior Kyle Brackman finished 49th out of 359 runners with a time of 25:15, 34 places higher than his finish in the Paul Short College Invitational last year.
Other notable performers included sophomore Sean Parker who has displayed tremendous progress from his freshman year. Parker finished by placing 75th out of all runners, a 200-place improvement from a year ago.
There total run time was 2:18:27. Kyle Brackman and Sean Parker placing first and second out of all Husky runners was followed by senior Kyle Barber. The two freshmen on the team, James Maniscalco and William Brisman, finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
UConn’s next cross country meet will be on Oct. 12 at the Princeton Invitational. With the possibility of three of UConn’s top runners returning for the meet including seniors Patrick Begley and Michael McGonnigle, the team will hope to fair better.
The next two weeks will be crucial to regroup as a team and then work hard for the next meet. Every meet counts due to the limited amount of competitions on the schedule so head coach Greg Roy will need to make some adjustments moving forward.
Daniel Dashefsky is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached at daniel.dashefsky@uconn.edu.
Amir Clato-Day is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at amir.clato-day@uconn.edu.
