BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Senior Dillon Farrell likes to run on the course at Lehigh University's Goodman Campus as he led the Moravian College men's cross country team to a second place finish in the season-opening Lehigh Invitational by capturing first place individually among the 76 runners on the course.
Farrell had a time of 18:26.61 on the 6,000-meter course, finishing 0.68 seconds ahead of the first runner from Lehigh. In fact, the next runner that wasn't from the host Mountain Hawks or unattached didn't finish until 20th place. Farrell helped the Greyhounds score 71 points to edge out rival Muhlenberg College for second place as the Mules scored 88 points. Lehigh won the meet with 20 points.
"We were obviously happy with Dillon's race," stated fourth-year Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "He was patient, something we're trying to work on this year, then a little before the three-mile mark, he and Moravian alum Matt Lutcza '12 started to separate themselves from the field. It still ended up coming down to a kick, but Dillon muscled out the win after a tough week of training.
"We were hoping to run 4:55 miles to set himself up to run sub 24:30 for 8K later in the year, which he did so we're right where he hope to be," concluded Baumann.
Senior Alec Duncan also ran a time under 20 minutes in the meet, finishing 25th in 19:45.39. Junior Jeremy Rigotti placed 29th in a time of 20:28.39 while sophomore Cory Taggert took 33rd in 20:38.87. Freshmen Robert Cahill and Josh Toth were the next two Greyhounds to cross the line in 46th and 47th places while freshman Austin Stetler took 52nd.
Moravian had four other competitors in the race with freshman Mike Kopach in 55th place, junior Maxwell Korten finishing 59th, freshman Zimra Winters taking 71st and senior Corey Schauerman in 73rd.
The Greyhounds will not return to action for another three weeks as the next meet on the schedule is the Dickinson College Long/Short Invitational on Saturday, September 20.