The Profs competed in the Paul Short Run at Lehigh University on Saturday at one of the biggest cross country meets of the year, where teams from all three divisions were invited to compete.

In their first major meet of the season, Rowan finished 33 out of 44 teams.

Coach Ringo Adamson described the meet best, calling it “the Penn Relays of cross country.”

Coach Adamson, not looking much at the final result of the meet, was more focused on the benefits the race will bring to the team in the future.

“It’s our first really hard meet of the year,” Adamson said. “And it just gives them an indicator of what regions will be like, what nationals will be like”

Alyssa Sanders was the top runner for Rowan, finishing 57th overall. Diane Ferraro also finished in the top 100, finishing 87th. When asked about the race, Sanders, a team captain, focused on team success as a whole.

“I think the team performed really well,” Sanders said. “For a lot of the girls, it’s their first time running a 6k so I think it was a good effort for the team as a whole.”

Sanders further supported Adamson’s views on the benefits of the race.

“I think for the younger girls this race is a lot bigger, some 400 girls (racing),” Sanders said. “Doing a bigger 6k as the first one, it’s like ‘ok we’re good, NJACs isn’t going to be this big.’ So I feel like running a bigger meet as the first 6k is good.”

Adamson is already looking forward to the next race, the Inter-Regional Border Battle on Oct. 15, ready to build off this past meet.

“We’re going to back this race up again,” Adamson said. “It’s going to be a highly competitive race. Bingo, we went from that (the Paul Short Run) to another big heavy hitter. We can only put our ten best in that race. We’re going to prep for that, and they know they have to run fast.”

The Inter-Regional Border Battle will be Saturday, Oct. 15 at the Gloucester County DREAM Park in Logan Township, New Jersey.

For comments/questions about this story, email sports@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.