Poncelet finishes among top runners at Paul Short

Sophomore Valentin Poncelet finished sixth overall, among the best runners in the nation, in the men's run at the Paul Short invitational last Friday in Bethlehem, Pa. Georgia State traveled north to go against over 100 schools at Paul Short. Five of the top 20 women's teams in the country ran in the race,including Georgetown, Providence, Villanova, Syracuse and Virginia. Head coach Chris England was excited about the competition that they were going against.

"By traveling to east Pennsylvania we will see some new competition," England told Georgia State Athletics. "We've already seen many of the top teams from the south, now we'll get a chance to see the top teams from New England and across the country. Ultimately, our goal is to face the CAA foes and see where we lie as we approach the conference championship." The women's team placed 33rd out of 45 teams in the gold race while the men placed 15th out of 46 teams in the 8k brown race. On the men's side, the top runners were senior Chris Harper and sophomores Valentin Poncelet and Tyler Tomy.

Top runner Poncelet finished with a time of 25:51, placing him sixth overall out of 382 runners. "Valentin ran a very smart and tactical race," England told Athletics. "He knew not to get caught up in the pack and he was able to come away with a very strong finish. We had some very good leadership from our two front runners today." Harper finished with a time of 26:50 while Tomy finished with a time of 26:59 in the 8k for the men. The team's average time for this race was 26:54, putting them with a final score of 473. On the women's side, the top runners for this race were junior Alison Bishop and freshmen Hannah Stefanoff and Sarah McCarthy. With a time of 22:13, Stefanoff finished 102nd overall in the 6k. She earned CAA women's cross country Runner of the Week honors for the third time in a row.

Bishop had a time of 23:01 while McCarthy had a time of 22:50 in the 6k for the women. All seven women that competed in the race had a time of 1:17 from one another. The team had an overall average score of 22:58 putting their team score at 882. "We faced off against some of the top teams in the country," England told Athletics. "But our runners weren't scared. They were up to the challenge. They were eager to compete. That correlated to the strong finishes we had today." Georgia State will compete in Evans, Ga., at the Jaguar Invitational next Saturday at 8 a.m.