LOCK HAVEN, Pa. -- An historic snowstorm in Happy Valley, PA dumped six inches of snow on the Penn State golf course on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning and nearly caused the cancellation of the Penn State National Cross Country Invitational.  Travelling 45 minutes up the road, however, the meet was moved to the course at Lock Haven University, a terrific layout that has hosted three Division I Mid-Atlantic Regional championships in the past ten years.  Although covered with a layer of snow and with the course quickly sloppy and muddy in rainy, 35 degree weather, the meet went on and the Big Red harriers performed very well.

The Big Red men, led by junior Nate Edelman's second place overall finish, took first in the field of 11 teams, defeating Tompkins County rival and Division III power Cortland as well as Heps rival Yale (third).  More teams stuck around for the women's race and the Big Red women impressed in a national caliber field, taking fourth out of 18 teams with 131 points, edging ahead of Boston College by three points and finishing 19 points clear of Stony Brook; both teams have appeared in the national poll each week this season. #3-nationally ranked West Virginia (27), #16 Penn State (56) and #25 Providence (74) took the top three team places.

The men tuned up for the Heps in impressive fashion, scoring a low total of 48 point, led by Edelman who was the top collegiate finisher with a time of 25:06 for the 8K course.  Battling for the individual win throughout - and for the second major meet in a row - Edelman again demonstrated impressive up-front capabilities.  But as the rest of the Big Red's top five stepped up, the team's fortunes proved to be much better than their last outing at Lehigh two weeks ago.

Senior Joel Frost-Tift bounced back with a very good ninth place run of 25:30 while junior Max Kasak had a big competitive break-through to place 10th, also in 25:30, closing very well.  Freshman Brett Kelly had a terrific race to place 15th in 25:47 and senior co-captain Dale Taylor rounded out the top five with a 21st place showing of 25:50, his first career top-five showing for Cornell. More importantly, the 44 second spread between Cornell's first and fifth runners was a big improvement from two weeks ago, made all the more encouraging given the absence of junior Matt DeSilva, the team's #2 man two weeks ago, who missed the meet to be at a job interview. Senior co-captain Charlie Hatch was 22nd in 25:55 and classmate Brad Bogdan was right behind in 23rd and 25:56 to close out the top seven. Also running was senior Owen Kimple (31st, 26:01), junior Drew Hart (35th, 26:09), senior Kyle Wolpert (53rd, 26:35), sophomore Chandler Kemp (61st, 26:41) and freshman Kevin Johnson (70th, 26:50).

Complete results can be found at:
http://www.runhigh.com/2009%20WEB%20RESULTS/R101609AB.HTML

The Heps are at Van Cortlandt Park on Friday, October 30th.  In the meantime, a Cornell men's "B" team will compete at the Rochester Invitational on Saturday, October 17th and the Big Red will host the John Reif Memorial Run at the Moakley Course on Friday, October 23rd.