Led by four runners who set personal 6K bests, the Muhlenberg women's cross country team enjoyed a banner day at Lehigh's Paul Short Run, placing 18th out of 34 teams. 

The men, competing without their top runner and with two runners who completed their first career 8K races, came in 32nd.

The women were in 25th place with 612 team points at the one-mile mark but picked up the pace and finished with 454 points to rise in the standings. At the two-mile mark, the Mules were in 21st place and Centennial Conference rival Ursinus was in 17th, but Muhlenberg moved up while Ursinus dipped to 23rd.

Leading the way for the Mules was senior Jem Berney, who came in 20th overall, and 11th among Division III runners, with a personal-best time of 23:37.0. The time was more than 50 seconds faster than their previous best of 24:27.2 and more than a minute better than their time of 24:59.6 on the same course five weeks ago. Berney was in 60th place at the mile mark, but like many of their teammates, finished strong. Berney's final clocking ranks 18th on the program's all-time list and was the best by a Muhlenberg runner since 2021. 

No one on the team showed greater improvement than senior Katie Shepard, the Mules' fifth finisher with a time of 26:35.0 - nearly two minutes better than her previous best of 28:22.7. Shepard (pictured above left) was in 209th place at the two-mile mark and finished in 157th; only two runners in the entire field picked up more places in the latter stages of the race. 

In between Berney and Shepard, juniors Maggie Holderith, Ella Borello, and Ava Lundy finished 2-3-4 for the Mules, respectively, with Borello knocking more than 30 seconds off of her previous best, finishing in 25:30.3.

Freshman Ava Azzinnari, the Mules' sixth runner, improved 55 places from the one-mile mark to the finish, coming in 161st.

Senior Lydia Jenkins-Ford finished with a personal best of 27:44.6, dropping 12 seconds off her top mark. 

The men were led for the first time in his career by freshman Niklas Haraldsson (pictured above right), who finished his first 8K in 29:29.4. He moved up more than 40 places from the mile mark to the finish line.

Rounding out the top five for the Mules were senior Andrew Smolowitz, freshman Alex Stefaniak, junior TJ Cook Jr., and sophomore Jake Restivo. Cook ran his best 8K of the season, while Restivo completed an 8K for the first time in his career.

complete results: women | men