Callan and Gonzalez lead Broncs at Lehigh
By Rocco Schirripa
The Rider cross country team headed out to Bethlehem, Pa., for the Paul Short Invitational, hosted by Lehigh.
The men placed ninth out of 38 teams and the women placed 12th out of 19 teams.
“Collectively as a group, we ran much better this year than last year,” Head Coach Bob Hamer said to Rider Sports Information.
Junior Chelsea Callan, who had a major highlight for the women’s team, placed 24th out of the 338 runners in the College Brown race. She set a new Rider record, covering the course with a time of 22:21.
“She beat our best time on this course by about three seconds,” Hamer said to Rider Sports Information. “She’s just having an outstanding year. That’s over a minute faster than she ran here last year.”
For the men, junior Christian Gonzalez finished 20th out of 323 runners, with a final time of 25:37. Gonzalez, who has been injury-prone most of this season, was the Broncs’ main carrier last year.
“Chris ran a nice race today,” Hamer said to Rider Sports Information. “I was real happy with that because we’ve struggled to get him through training. He’s not exactly where he’d like to be, but he’s definitely much farther along than he was two weeks ago.”
Other highlights for the Broncs include junior Michael Soroko placing 24th, with a time of 25:41.
“Soroko did a great job,” Hamer said to Rider Sports Information. “That’s about 40 seconds faster than he ran a year ago on this course. Mike is trying to be that leader on the team, and he’s putting himself out there.”
Sophomore Michael Linder placed 84th with a time of 26:24 and senior Robert McCullough placed 113th with a time of 26:30. Freshman Sean Donohue placed 120th with a time of 26:43, and freshman Sean McCullough placed 154th with a time of 26:54.
For the women, sophomore Heather Giovagnoli placed 61st with a time of 23:04, and freshman Victoria Lima placed 82nd with the time of 23:23. Freshman Megan Elgin placed 112th with a time of 23:40, and freshman Jillian Shutt placed 132nd with a time of 23:50.
The Broncs will compete in the Penn State Invitational on Oct. 16.
“I always get excited for this trip,” Hamer said to Rider Sports Information.
