LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – The Lebanon Valley men's cross country team broke a pair of program records and finished fifth overall against mostly Division II programs on Saturday at the Lock Haven Invitational on the West Branch Course in Lock Haven.
 
The 28th-ranked Dutchmen had the best five-runner average in program history at 25:14, beating the previous record of 25:37 at last year's SUNY Geneseo meet. Rory Lieberman ran a school record 8,000-meter time of 24:19.2 to finish third overall in the Crimson race field of 204. He beat the previous record of 24:40 run by LVC Athletics Hall of Famer Jeff Koegel in 1994. "This was a really good effort for us," Head Coach James O'Brien '07, M'16, stated. "We only lost to three nationally ranked Division II programs, and one that should be. This wasn't a perfect day, but it was really good. We are hopeful we can take this, build some momentum on it, and carry it into a slightly better performance at Paul Short next Friday."
 
LVC placed their top five runners in the top 45 of the race to earn 124 points. Charleston, the 17th-ranked team in Division II, won the team title with a score of 71. Walsh, who is ranked 25th, finished second with a score of 79, one point ahead of Ashland. The 22nd-ranked Davis & Elkins team finished fourth at 95 points. The Dutchmen were fifth, right in front of host Lock Haven in sixth with 191 points, and Division I St. Bonaventure in seventh with 195 points. The only other two Division III teams in the field were Middle Atlantic Conference foes Stevens and Hood. Stevens finished 15th with 382 points, and Hood was 20th with 623 points.
 
Lieberman was just seven seconds back on the overall winner, Mike Formica of Indiana (Pa.), who won in 24:12.70. St. Bonaventure's Clay Peets was second in 24:15.10. Joe Chukoskie finished 20th as LVC's second finisher with a career-best time of 25:07.1. His time is seventh on the program's Top 15 list. Andrew Namatka wasn't far behind him in 27th with a career-best time of 25:23.1. His time is 11th on the program's all-time list. Eric Shelton also ran a career-best time of 25:33.5 to finish 31st. His time is 14th in program history. Lukas Walko rounded out the top five finishers for the Dutchmen with a career-best time of 25:49.5 to cross the line in 45th. Wyatt Leitzel ran a career-best time of 26:05.4 to finish 60th, while Samuel Bower had a career-best 26:14.1 to cross the line in 66th.
 
LVC Finishers
Crimson Race

PL	NAME	Avg. Mile	TIME	SCORE
3	Rory Lieberman	04:53.5	24:19.2	3
20	Joe Chukoskie	05:03.2	25:07.1	20
27	Andrew Namatka	05:06.4	25:23.1	27
31	Eric Shelton	05:08.5	25:33.5	31
45	Lukas Walko	05:11.7	25:49.5	43
60	Wyatt Leitzel	05:14.9	26:05.4	55
66	Samuel Bower	05:16.6	26:14.1	59
74	Dylan Lenhart	05:18.3	26:22.3
97	Elijah McKell	05:23.4	26:47.5
143	Liam Allen	05:32.2	27:31.6
159	Dylan Miller	05:40.2	28:11.3

 
White Race

PL	NAME	Avg. Mile	TIME	SCORE
29	Chad Keller	05:36.6	27:53.1	27
77	Caden Bell	05:52.4	29:11.8	73
81	Ben Graybeal	05:53.7	29:18.2	76
93	Jason Nester	05:58.6	29:42.9	85
99	Aidan Jennings	06:02.4	30:01.5	89
100	Owen Kreider	06:02.7	30:03.2	90
110	Aden Davis	06:07.2	30:25.4	92
113	Ethan Darlington	06:09.8	30:38.5
116	Trevor Gipe	06:12.0	30:49.4

 
Up Next
Lebanon Valley will head to Lehigh University next Friday to compete in the historic Paul Short Run. The Dutchmen are expected to run in the White Race once race assignments are released early this week. The first race of the day will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the open races in Bethlehem.

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