By Brandon Wentz

On Saturday afternoon an assortment of 40 different track and field teams participated in the Paul Short Invitational, which was hosted by Lehigh University. The Golden Bears’ men’s cross country team respectively placed 26th in the packed field. Princeton University came out on top with 83 points in the meet.

The Paul Short Invitational ranks among the largest cross country meets and this year was no different with 5,500 students running for 400 different schools. Kutztown finished with 721 points in the all-day event. KU competed in the “College Men Brown” division and ended the day with an average time of 26:49 in the 8k event.

Freshman Steven Maine was Kutztown’s leader once again this weekend, and ended up being the only Golden Bear to crack the top 100. Maine notched himself a 21st place finish with a time of 25:31. He was also the third-best finishing freshman at the Paul Short Invitational. This finish comes on the heels of Maine being named the PSAC Athlete of the Week on September 29th.

Chris Coates, Justin Gum and Jack Inglis comprised the next team of Kutztown runners to make their way across the finish line, respectively. Coates came in 157th place with a time of 26:53, and Gum placed 175th in 27:05. Meanwhile, Inglis had a season-best time of 27:15 and placed 194th.

Maine, Coates and Gum led KU in pace; with Maine ending the meet with a pace of 5:08, Coates had a pace of 5:25 and Gum’s pace was 5:27.

Alex Watson was the next Golden Bear to cross the finish line and 205th at the event with a time of 27:20. Following Watson were the final KU scorers CJ Bauer and Mark Pfaeffle, who finished within a second of each other at 27:38 and 27:39. Bauer earned the 232nd place and Pfaeffle the 236th place. Devonte King wrapped up the race for Kutztown with a time of 28:16, placing 287th.

The Kutztown Golden Bears’ next meet is the “Go Fast River Run” hosted by Lock Haven University, which will take place Oct. 25 at 1p.m.