BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Rory Lieberman finished fourth overall as the Lebanon Valley men's cross country team made a big statement on Friday afternoon as the Dutchmen finished sixth out of 45 scoring teams in a stacked White Race at the prestigious Paul Short Run at Lehigh University in Bethlehem.
 
There were 12 nationally ranked teams in the race, including the Dutchmen. "This was truly a special day for our guys," Head Coach James O'Brien stated. "In such a large field with tons of nationally and regionally ranked opponents, we truly held our own. I'm hopeful that we amassed the NCAA at-large points that will put us in a good situation at the end of the year. Super proud of our guys, they showed up and ran as tough as we needed them to."
 
The large field forced the Dutchmen to get out to a slow start as they were 15th at the mile. The whole team kept moving up as the race went on, as they were ninth at the 5K mark and then finished sixth. New York University, which is ranked 13th in the nation, won the team title. Amherst (28th), Carnegie Mellon (15th), Washington & Lee (16th), and Lynchburg (22nd) finished second through fifth ahead of the Dutchmen (30th). LVC finished ahead of MIT, Loras, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Colorado College, and TCNJ. All of those teams except for Middlebury were ranked above the Dutchmen in this week's national poll. MIT was the highest-ranked team at 19.
 
Lieberman, who was 19th at the mile, moved all the way up to fourth with a time of 24:30.2 on the 8,000-meter course. Joe Chukoskie finished 45th with a time of 25:14.1 while Andrew Namatka was 62nd in 25:28.2. Eric Shelton had a big surge, going from 196th at the mile to 63rd at the finish with a career-best time of 25:28.3. Lukas Walko was LVC's fifth finisher in 91st, after being 221st at the mile, with a career-best time of 25:41.9. Wyatt Leitzel was 149th with a time of 26:12.8 and Dylan Lenhart rounded out the top seven in 168th with a time of 26:22.7.

LVC Finishers
White Race

PL	NAME	Avg. Mile	TIME	SCORE
4	Rory Lieberman	04:55.7	24:30.2	4
45	Joe Chukoskie	05:04.6	25:14.1	45
62	Andrew Namatka	05:07.4	25:28.2	62
63	Eric Shelton	05:07.4	25:28.3	63
91	Lukas Walko	05:10.2	25:41.9	91
149	Wyatt Leitzel	05:16.4	26:12.8	144
168	Dylan Lenhart	05:18.4	26:22.7	159
259	Elijah McKell	05:25.7	26:59.2
304	Samuel Bower	05:31.4	27:27.7

 
Open Race

PL	NAME	Avg. Mile	TIME	SCORE
368	Liam Allen	05:31.7	27:29.0	205
374	Chad Keller	05:32.5	27:33.0	209
378	Caden Bell	05:32.9	27:34.7	212
383	Dylan Miller	05:33.3	27:37.1	215
489	Jason Nester	05:50.0	28:59.8	276
495	Ben Graybeal	05:52.5	29:12.5	281
498	Aidan Jennings	05:53.0	29:15.1	282
499	Owen Kreider	05:53.3	29:16.6
539	Ethan Darlington	06:06.9	30:23.9
550	Trevor Gipe	06:18.3	31:20.9

 
Up Next
The Dutchmen will have the last big race before the conference championships in two weeks on Saturday, Oct. 18 as they compete in Rowan's Inter-Regional Border Battle in Logan Township.

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