Castano's Record, Multiple Season Bests Highlight Cross Country's Run at Paul Short

The NJIT cross country teams made a return trip to the campus of Lehigh University for the 48th edition of their Paul Short Run and left with some positive momentum heading into next week's Highlander Invitational.

With such a loaded field of teams from across the country, the focus of the teams and head coach Jason Munsch was personal improvement and the Highlanders executed on Munsch's plan.

On the women's side, only two Highlanders made the trek to Bethlehem for the 6K - junior Katherine Castano and freshman Kimmie Harding - but both runners made significant strides on their season times. Castano shaved a minute off her season and college best (from 23:41.5 at the Lehigh Invitational to 22:41.9 today) and in the process broke an NJIT school record that stood since 2013, while Harding nearly matched Castano with a 53 second boost to her season best (24:16.8 at Lehigh to 23:23.1). 

Every Highlander on the men's side that had competed so far this season also posted season bests on Friday: Junior Matthew Morena (27:40.3 at Ted Owen to 26:23.4), sophomore Anthony Dvorsky (28:05.4 at Ted Owen to 26:29.6), senior David Essel (28:01.6 at Ted Owen to 26:55.9), junior Reyden Davies (28:25.1 at Ted Owen to 27:15.3), freshman Daniel Robles (28:51.7 at Ted Owen to 27:23.8), freshman Fabian Herrera (29:00.6 at Ted Owen to 27:56.3), sophomore Joseph Mucci (29:13.5 at Ted Owen to 27:58.1), freshman William Prevost (28:45.2 at Ted Owen to 28:08.8), and freshman Austin Essel (29:04.6 at Ted Owen to 28:30.9). Freshman Jackson Reynolds made his debut Friday and posted a time of 31:00.7

NEXT UP
The Highlanders will host the aforementioned Highlander Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 8 at Branch Brook Park beginning at 11 a.m. as a part of NJIT Homecoming Weekend.