BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Led by top-50 performances from freshman Sophia Jacobs-Townsley and senior Abigail Gugel, the Boston University women's cross country team continued its 2019 campaign on Saturday at the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh.

"I thought everybody ran great," head coach Paul Spangler said. "Our 1-4 did a phenomenal job up front. I couldn't be happier."

BU placed 17th in the 43-team field with 472 points. Jacobs-Townsley (20:52.7) and Gugel (20:52.9) finished 47th and 48th, respectively, to pace the Terriers in the 6K race. Freshman Andrea Claeson was next for BU in 77th place with a time of 21:05.3, followed by junior Corinne Batsu (21:10.9) in 89th. Junior Laura Parkinson rounded out the Terrier scorers with a time of 22:22.1.

"I thought Andrea really went after it," Spangler said. "She went through 5K in a new PR and was probably our first woman coming into the last 200 meters before she just hit a wall. She fell and got back up and finished the race and still did well. For her to push herself to that limit, fall down and get right back up, shows how tough she is."
 
Sophomore Angela Castronuovo posted a time of 22:39.2), with juniors Stephanie Forbes (22:48.6) and Coco Ocker (22:57.5) also competing. The performance from everyone was a much-needed result after a disappointing effort at the Battle in Beantown two weeks ago.

"If there was anything that could go wrong at Beantown, it did go wrong," Spangler said. "For the team to come out here and run well shows how they can persevere, have a bad race and come out the next race more determined. That's what they did today."

The Terriers will next compete at the Princeton Invitational on Oct. 19.

"Once we get Jessica Kellar and Joceline Wind in there and close that gap between our No. 5 to our No. 6, or our No. 4 to our No. 7, there's the potential for things to really come together," Spangler said. "We're definitely feeling pretty good about where we're at right now," Spangler said. "We just have to keep working hard and stay healthy."