KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Lock Haven University men’s and women’s cross country teams were in action today at the Maroon and Gold Invitational hosted by Kutztown University with both teams turning in solid performances.

The men’s team brought home the win with 26 points while the Lady Eagles took second.

A focus for this meet was to see how well the men could run together as team and they did so very well as they put their top seven runners in the top 12 spots overall.

Leading the way for the Bald Eagles was Brandon Pomerantz (Holland, Pa./Council Rock North) who took second overall followed closely by rookie A.J. Johnson (Coventry, R.I./Coventry) and Shawn Moore (Elverson, Pa./Twin Valley), who finished third and fourth, respectively.

Pomerantz covered the 8K course in 27:48.03, while Johnson finished in 27:51.34 and Moore clocked 27:51.76 making a up a very solid lead pack for the Bald Eagles.

Rounding out LHU’s top seven that all placed in the top-12 spots in the race was Tim Getz (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) (8th, 28:13.17), Jed Yeatts (Mercersburg, Pa./James Buchanan) (9th, 28:19.31), Chris Bell (Marysville, Pa./Susquenita) (10th, 28:21.30) and Nick Hilton (Reading, Pa./Exeter) (12th, 28:30.82).

The women’s team also had a very strong outing today taking second behind host Kutztown, who won last year’s NCAA Division II East Region title on the women’s side.

Leading the way for the Lady Eagles was junior Shala Simms (Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby) and sophomore Lindsey Scheller (Sunbury, Pa./Shiellany) as they took fifth and sixth, respectively. Simms finished the 6K course in 24:57.31 while Scheller finished in 25:08.04.

Much like the men the women also wanted to run well as team and did so.

Rounding out the top-seven for the women’s side was Alyssa Douma (West Milford, N.J./West Milford) (14th, 27:16.86), Jenelle Gobel (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial) (15th, 27:34.74), Katiera Carey (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) (20th, 28:16.61), April Salinas (Mill Hall, Pa./Central Mountain) (24th, 28:42.48) and Alexis Patrick (Manahawkin, N.J./Southern Regional).

“Today our focus was to work as a team and I’m really happy with the way both teams did that,” LHU head coach Aaron Russell said. “The freshmen are responding well and we worked well as a team in both races.”

Both teams are back in action when they host the LHU Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 15 at 10 a.m.