In the last few weeks, sophomore Sam Bair and senior Nicki Angstadt have grown into their new… In the last few weeks, sophomore Sam Bair and senior Nicki Angstadt have grown into their new roles as their team’s No. 1 runners, and as the cliche goes, have “carried their teams on their backs.”

Yet, as the number of injuries continue to pile up for the Panthers, Bair and Angstadt may be forced to interpret the cliche literally.

Already racing without pre-season women’s No. 1 Lauren Shaffer and men’s No. 3 Eric Fleming, the cross country teams suffered another couple of injuries en route to a very mediocre performance at last weekend’s Paul Short Invitational, held on the campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

The invitational featured four nationally ranked teams and a number of strong competitors from the Mid-Atlantic Region, Pitt being among them. The men’s team finished 28th out of 44 teams and the women’s team finished in 24th out of 47. The results did not please head coach Alonzo Webb.

“I was not really happy with the outcome,” Webb said. “I expected the men to finish in the top three or four, and instead we finished in 28th. However, we had a couple of unfortunate things happen to us and essentially ran without our second, third and fourth best runners.”

The unfortunate things Webb was referring to were the injuries that befell three of his top four runners: Tim Konoval, Andy Tomaswick and Eric Fleming. Konoval endured painful cramps throughout the entire race, and as a result, finished near the bottom. Tomaswick had foot problems and ended up limping his way to the finish line. The aforementioned Fleming did not compete at all because of injury.

Without their top runners, the Panthers went from the top five to 28. To put things into perspective, the Duquesne men’s team, which a healthy Pitt crushed earlier this season, finished in 8th place.

Leading the men yet again was sophomore Sam Bair who finished an impressive second overall out of 296 runners with a time of 23:54.3. It was Bair’s third finish this season that has placed him at the top of his conference and region. If he continues to run as well as he has, Bair will more than likely find himself competing in the NCAA Championships in November.

“Sam is not even 100 percent yet,” Webb said. “He has a great shot of qualifying for the NCAAs as an individual runner.”

Finishing in second for the Panthers, (and well behind Bair), was sophomore Curtis Larimer, with a time of 25:31.0.

Angstadt, who finished in 67th overall with a time of 21:57.6, led the women’s squad.

“Nicki is running now like we knew she was capable of,” Webb said. “With Shaffer out, she should remain in the top spot the rest of the season.”

Angstadt was followed by sophomores Ali Briggs and Candice Coholich with times of 22:24.9 and 22:30.3, respectively.

“The women ran a fairly strong race overall,” Webb said, “but I still expected a little more out of them as well.

Despite the disappointment, all was not lost for the Panthers. One of the positives to come from the meet was that the Panthers were able to familiarize themselves with the Lehigh course. The familiarity will be an advantage later in the season when the team races there a second time for the 2005 NCAA Regional Championship meet.

The Panthers have the week off, but will head to State College, Pa., on Oct. 15 for the National Invitational. Coach Webb believes his team is well-suited for the Penn State course and expects them to bounce back.