LEBANON, Pa. --- The Moravian College men's cross country team placed third at the 2018 Landmark Conference Championships hosted by Elizabethtown College at Union Canal Tunnel Park in Lebanon, Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon led by a runner-up finish from junior Gregory Jaindl.
The Greyhounds scored 61 points while the host Blue Jays were first with 44 points, one ahead of runner-up Juniata College.
"The men didn't have the day we were hoping for as a team," stated Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Jesse Baumann. "A few of our key top seven had some nagging injuries and side aches that really snowballed and as a team we couldn't quite recover from to match what Etown and Juniata were running, both of whom had great days. With that said, moving forward I'm excited for Regionals because I feel if we can put a complete race together, we can be competitive with those two and some of the top teams in our region.
"Individually, Greg did all he could to give Gerstenbacher from Etown a run at it, Sam just had a little more at the end despite an incredible race by Greg," continued Baumann. "Gavin had a stellar race, we joked that he needs to stop running 26:30, but in terms of tactics and how he finished he couldn't have done better. Dominic steadily moved up like he always does to finish as the top freshman and Ben Smith had the best race of his life with a huge PR. We had some great races from Michael Lerch, Alex Tursi, and Aaron Hofmann as well, so there were a lot of big positives from today to carry into the next few weeks of the season."
Jaindl finished the wet and muddy course in 26:04.48, finishing 1.67 seconds behind Samuel Gerstenbacher from Elizabethtown in the field of 83 runners. Junior Gavin Kemery placed fifth in 26:31.55 while freshman Dominic Derafelo had the top freshman time in the race as he finished 14th in a time of 27:06.54. Senior Benjamin Smith was 17th overall in 27:24.66 while senior Devon Harris placed 23rd in 27:36.70 to round out the Moravian top five.
Senior Aaron Hofmann finished 33rd in 28:19.86 to lead a group of 10 Hounds that finished in the next minute and a half of the race. Freshman Michael Lerch placed 36th in 28:28.50 while sophomore Peter Gingrich was 38th in a time of 28:45.71. Juniors Alex Tursi and Devon Fogel were 40th and 41st while freshman Joseph Capone placed 46th. Rounding out the Moravian runners were junior Justin Beasley-Turner in 50th, freshman Shane Houghton at 51st, freshman Brad Clemson in 52nd place and freshman Richard Glennon at 56th.
The Greyhounds are scheduled to return to action on Saturday, November 10 in the 2018 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional being hosted by DeSales University in Center Valley.
