For the third consecutive race freshman Joshua Christopher led the Pitt men’s cross country… For the third consecutive race freshman Joshua Christopher led the Pitt men’s cross country team, helping the squad to a 16th place finish at the Paul Short Invitational this past Friday.

Christopher, who turned in a personal best time of 25:38 in the eight-kilometer race, placed 71st overall, and was followed by sophomore Eric Burnett and senior Curtis Larimer in 75th and 81st place, respectively.

The race, which took place at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., fielded 41 teams. Coming in first place was Villanova, while Syracuse, Princeton, Penn and La Salle rounded out the top five.

Villanova senior Bobby Curtis placed first overall with a time of 23:39.

The Panthers, racing without top two runners Sam Bair and Eric Flemming, who were out with injuries, had an average time of 25:51. The women’s group placed 25th out of 41 teams, with senior Alexandra Briggs leading the pack with a 76th-place finish at 22:14.

Coach Alonzo Webb said the team took away both good and bad from the race.

“I have mixed feelings,” said Webb. “On the men’s side I knew it’d be tough because our top two runners were out.”

“I saw some good things from the young guys. Eric Burnett and Curtis Larimer were close to Josh Christopher.”

One of the team’s main focuses is to run as a group and stay in a tight pack. With Christopher leading the way, Burnett and Larimer both finished in less than 26 minutes.

“In a normal meet [that’s] not bad. But in a meet of that magnitude, there’s about 40 or 50 guys in between,” Webb said.

“A lot of guys finished tight within the team, but because there were so many runners, there are a lot of people in between.”

The women accomplished a similar feat.

Freshman Anna Yoney finished two places behind Briggs, just one second off her time at 22:15. Senior Amy Ruffalo wasn’t far behind at 22:58.

With the likes of No. 4 Iona in attendance, Webb came away with encouraging insights into the leadership qualities of his younger, less-experienced runners.

“I was really impressed by the way [Christopher] handled the pressure of the meet,” said Webb. “He could have fallen apart as a freshman, but he led us again.”

Christopher, who has turned heads as a freshman, said he was encouraged by the way the team ran.

“As a team, even though we got 16th place, we ran a lot more as a group this week,” said Christopher, who before this race recorded two consecutive fourth-place finishes.

“A lot of guys really stepped it up more and improved. It gave us confidence that if we keep progressing, by the time the Big East [Championship] comes we’ll be a really tight group with faster times.”

Christopher attributed his leading time to his teammates, who he says pushed him from start to finish.

“It gives me motivation to want to run faster for the team because I don’t want to let anyone else down,” he said.

The team now faces a week layoff before meets at Penn State Oct. 12 and at Carnegie Mellon Oct. 13.

Webb is looking forward to both races.

“I think PSU will be good. The team is tight-knit and we’re looking forward to it.”

The team will be at full force at Penn State with Bair and Flemming expected to return.

With back-to-back races, though, the team will have an opportunity to run its second-tier unit at Carnegie Mellon, giving its first team a rest and allowing chances for less-used runners to establish themselves.

With a team comprised of all underclassman, with the exception of three seniors, Webb has more modest goals for a team that he considered nationally competitive a year ago.

“It’s a young group, we have some freshman in our top five,” he said. “It’ll be a national caliber team in a year or two.

“Our goal is to have success in the Big East and that’s already a challenge. We want to get into the top five in the Big East and compete well in the regional meet.”

Christopher, who knows that he has plenty of time to develop as a runner, is optimistic the team can achieve these goals, but knows the team’s greatest successes will come from hard work.

“Coach let’s us know what our ability is and that if we run it in practice we can do it in a race,” the Irwin native said. “I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing.”