Women’s cross country: Chloe Thomas breaks second consecutive meet record, Huskies place second at Paul Short Invitational 

The UConn women’s cross country team placed second at the Paul Short Invitational meet at Lehigh University on Saturday afternoon.  

Chloe Thomas continued her record-breaking senior campaign by setting the course record and finishing over 30 seconds ahead of Boston University’s Vera Sjoberg in the Women’s 6k Gold Race.  

Saturday’s time of 19:23.8 was Thomas’ personal best in the six-kilometer run and the second individual time that broke a record at a meet this season. Her previous personal best was set in October of 2023 at the Arturo Barrios Invitational (19:49.5). The 26-second personal best broke the previous course record in Bethlehem, which was set by Utah Valley’s Everlyn Kemboi from 2022’s Paul Short run.  

The Canada-native and senior leader pulled away from the pack after the two-mile mark to win the 50^th annual meeting in Bethlehem.  

Thomas was not the only Husky to set a personal best on Saturday. Sophomores Chloe Trudel and Loghan Hughes set personal bests of 21:05 (62) and 21:25.5 (101), respectively.  

Veteran senior Jenna Zydanowicz finished 5^th overall with a time of 20:07.2, just six seconds behind Miami’s Daphnee Lavassas in fourth. Fellow senior Caroline Towle finished inside the top ten as well with a time of 20:14. The fourth and fifth-placing team finishers were sophomores Trudel and Malin Rahm. 

Connecticut finished with three runners inside the top ten, while no other team had more than one each. The Huskies placed second overall behind Ivy League representative Harvard, who was just 14 points ahead of UConn overall. UConn finished with the best average time by 19 seconds with 20:24 (Harvard’s was 20:43) and was one of six teams to finish with an average below 21:00. The Huskies have placed inside the top four of each of its first three meets to start the year.  

UConn took on six members of the Ivy League and went 5-1 overall, defeating Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown and Penn by an average of 45.8 seconds. UConn also went 4-0 against ACC opponents en route to its historic placing at the Paul Short run in Bethlehem.  

The Huskies will compete next on Oct. 11 in Hopkinton, New Hampshire at the Bruce Kirsh Cross Country Cup.