Oct. 14, 2000

Box Score

EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - Senior Art Lathers (Dennisville, N.J./Middle Township) finished in 16th place to pace the Lafayette men's cross country team on Saturday at the Leopard Invitational at Lafayette's Metzgar Fields course.

Lathers toured his home course in 26:11.

"The men's team in particular had a really good meet," said head coach Julio Piazza. "It gave us a ray of hope that we can continue to develop into a really good team by end of season. Our first four guys ran well. All of them had personal record times. Art Lathers just missed making the Lafayette All-Time Top 10 at Metzgar Fields by one second."

"Our fifth and sixth runners also ran really well. Given the performance of the athletes who did compete, the hopeful return of an injured runner and continued improvement of our fifth, sixth and seventh runners, we're hoping everything will fall into place by the end of the season."

Lathers' classmate Jon Smolenski (Manor, Pa./Hempfield) was the Leopards' second place finisher, placing 23rd in the 105-runner field in a time of 26:31.

Junior Jason Lewis (North Powder, Ore./Powder Alley) was the Leopards' third finisher, ending in 43rd in 27:06. Senior Nicholas Groch (Havertown, Pa./St. Joseph Prep) placed 47th in 27:12 followed by Reginald Clay (Columbus, Ga./Columbus) in 87th in a time of 28:39.

Princeton's Jonathan Bell took the overall individual title with a time of 25:23. He was the first of six Princeton runners in the top six. Princeton won the team competition with 15 points, 50 points ahead of second place finisher Penn.

Lafayette returns to action two weeks from today, competing at the Patriot League Championships at Lehigh on Oct. 28.

"The Patriot League Championship is the meet we've been pointing to for the whole season," Piazza said. "The guys should be ready to compete if Miguel Rodriguez is healthy and ready to go, and if our fifth, sixth and seventh runners step up and have a good race."