NEW ORLEANS, La. --- Moravian College senior Dillon Farrell has been selected as the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division III Men's Cross Country National Athlete of the Week for his performance during the opening weekend of the 2014 season.

Farrell captured first place at the Lehigh University Invitational while posting a time of 18:26.61 on the 6,000-meter course on the Goodman Campus. Farrell finished 0.68 seconds ahead of the first runner from Lehigh, and the next non-Lehigh or unattached runner didn't finish until 20th place.

Last fall, Farrell was third at the Lehigh Invitational and his winning time last Friday was nearly 40 seconds faster than his time a year ago on the same course. Farrell helped Moravian finish as the runner-up in the meet.

"Dillon came back in the best shape he's been in over the last four years," stated fourth-year Head Coach Jesse Baumann. "We're obviously very happy with the results last Friday. Dillon was patient on the course, something we're trying to work on this season. Just before the three-mile mark, he started to separate 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 have Dillon running 4:55 miles to set himself up to run sub 24:30 in the 8K later in the year, and he almost hit that time so we're right where he hope to be," concluded Baumann.

The Greyhounds are not scheduled to return to action until Saturday, September 20 when they will compete at the Dickinson College Long/Short Invitational at Big Spring High School.