After a quick start last season, the Panther cross country teams put their early season… After a quick start last season, the Panther cross country teams put their early season success to the test at the highly competitive Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University.

The competition proved to be stiff, however, serving as a reality check for the young Pitt team.

The background was no different this year, either, as the 2006 edition of the cross country team headed into last weekend’s 33rd annual Paul Short Invitational with confidence.

The Panthers knew that this would be a true test of their team strength.

“The Paul Short is a good test for us, not only because of the quality of the competition but also because the course is similar to that of the one we will run at the Big East Championships in Boston in a few weeks,” head coach Alonzo Webb said.

The men fared far better than the women in this race. However, Coach Webb stated that there is room for improvement on both sides.

“I don’t think we ran as good as we could have,” he said. “We need to improve, on both sides, on running more competitively as a united pack closer to the front. Overall, I feel we ran pretty good, but not great.”

Unlike the humbling experience of a year ago, the Panther men rose to the challenge this year and finished second overall out of 42 teams, trailing only Villanova. The strong finish was especially significant considering that a season ago, the men’s team came in 27th place.

Even still, their coach thought they could improve.

“I’m encouraged that we got second, even though we did not run our best race. The guys know they can run better,” said Webb.

One of the key storylines leading up to the race was the return of junior Sam Bair, the men’s number one runner. Bair’s absence was a planned one on behalf of the coaching staff, because of his history of being injury prone and slow with recovery.

According to Webb, Bair’s participation in the NCAA outdoor championships in the spring caused him to have an unusually long season. Consequently, the coaching staff felt that it was necessary to give him a break in order to keep him healthy for the end of the season.

Bair was hardly intimidated by the field in his first race of the season, as he was the first Panther (and the eighth runner overall) to cross the finish line with a time of 24:32.00.

“Sam wasn’t satisfied with his time,” Webb stated. “His running time last season was the exact same as this year’s overall winner, but this was his first race, and we expect more from him in the future.”

Not far behind him was senior Tim Konoval, who placed 11th overall with a time of 24:36.00.

“Tim is right up there with Sam,” Webb said. “Both of those guys are talented enough to run with anybody.”

Seniors Mike Long, Andy Tomaswick and Eric Fleming rounded out the top five for the men.

The women’s team did not quite match the success of its male counterpart, but still pulled together. The women’s champion was Princeton which finished with 61 points, while Pitt finished with 757 points; good enough for 27th place out of a total of 35 teams.

Pitt’s fastest runner was junior Nikki Bielick who finished in 107th place with a time of 22:59.00. Next was sophomore Monica Bhattcharjee (122nd), senior Suzy Bossart (142nd), sophomore Aly Brown (187th) and sophomore Rachel Botham (199th).

“It’s going to be a tough year on the women’s side,” said Webb. “We are a young team, and are currently going through the growing processes. We are also missing three of our top five women in Ali Briggs, Bailey Flask and Katelyn Fleishman because of an injury, so we should be stronger later.”

The competition does not get any easier for the Panthers as their next meet takes them to Terre Haute, Ind., on Oct. 14 for the Pre-National Race.

Pitt will face several of the nation’s top teams at the meet, which aims to prepare the Panthers for the following week’s Big East Championship race.