COMPLETE RESULTS

The High Point University men's cross country team placed 14th out of 42 teams at the nationally-competitive Paul Short Invitational on Friday in Bethlehem, Pa. Junior Neal Darmody led HPU with a 39th-place finish.

"We had a good, but not great performance on the men's side. Our guys didn't get out really well," said head coach Mike Esposito. "Neal Darmody and Jevin Monds were really solid and Patrick Crawford closed really well. As a group our team had a goal to finish in the top 10, so we were disappointed with 14th. The 46-second spread was good though."

Virginia won the meet with a score of 132 to come in ahead of Georgetown (149), William & Mary (170), Dartmouth (179) and the University of Guelph (206). The only two Big South schools selected for the feature race were Liberty and High Point, with Liberty finishing eighth with 308 points and HPU at 14th with 461. Defending NCAA champ Sam Chelanga of Liberty won the individual title in a time if 23:34, outdistancing runner-up Emil Heineking of Virginia by 15 seconds.

HPU's top two runners dipped under the 25:00 mark for the first time this season with Darmody leading the way in 39th place with a time of 24:45 for the 8,000-meter course. Freshman Patrick Crawford finished 46th in 24:51 and senior Jevin Monds placed 78th in a time of 25:05, the best in his four seasons of cross country at HPU.

Sophomores Dakota Peachee and Jacob Smith ran close together and rounded out High Point's scoring. Peachee placed 148th in 25:28 and Smith finished 158th in 25:31. Freshman Jacob Roach ran sixth for HPU, coming in 260th in a time of 26:13 and freshman John Yankello placed 329th in a time of 26:56.

The Panthers will stay close to home for the rest of October, running in the Blue Ridge Open at Appalachian State on Oct. 15 and in the Big South Championship in Blacksburg, Va., on Oct. 30.