The Shippensburg University cross country teams will compete in its biggest mid-season test Friday as it heads to Bethlehem to compete in the prestigious Paul Short Run presented by ASICS.
 
The Paul Short Run, one of the most prestigious cross country meets annually held in the Northeast, features five races for each gender to which teams are assigned based on season times and projections. The top race is the Gold, which is almost entirely composed of NCAA Division I programs. Slotted behind the Gold is the Brown. The White is exclusive to NCAA Division III schools, a format designed to help with the division's national championship qualifying standards. For the second year there is a 'Green' race which features a mixture of schools spanning NCAA Division II and III, junior colleges and independents. There is also an open race held in the morning for which there is no team scoring.
 
The Raider squads will compete in just two of the races this year. The SU women's team will have 15 women suited up and competing in the open race at 10:15 a.m. Ten men will toe the line in the top-flight "Gold" race at 11 a.m.
 
"We have done a solid three-week training block," head coach Steve Spence said. "We've tapered for this race, and I anticipate season-best times for all, and PRs for many of our women's runners."
 
Shippensburg typically trains to annually produce strong results at the Paul Short Run – especially in a "Festival" year as this season.  in which the schedule is spread out due to the NCAA Championships being held in December.
 
After having some terrific weather conditions over the last fortnight that have been conducive to strong training, Friday's forecast is predicting milder-than-ideal temperatures.
 
"The reason our women will run in the 'Open' race at 10:15 a.m. instead of the 'Brown' race at 2 p.m. is due to the heat-related problems we had in 2024," Spence said. "We had multiple runners between our women and men who required medical attention after competing in the 'Brown' races in the middle of the afternoon. While the open race is not scored, they will run in safer weather conditions, and it is very competitive."
 
For the second straight year, the Raider men's team will run in the elite 'Gold' race. Last year, SU and No. 1-ranked Wingate were the only NCAA Division II schools in the 'Gold' race; there were three NCAA Division III schools (RPI, Johns Hopkins and Geneseo), one NAIA school (Rio Grande) who ran alongside 34 NCAA Division I programs.
 
"Our men ran well in the 'Gold' race last year, finishing in the middle of a competitive field of mostly Division I colleges," Spence said. "This 'Gold' race at Paul Short provides similar competition to what we see at the NCAA Division II National Championships. It's important to gain that 'big-meet' experience in preparation for NCAAs."
 
Live results for each race will be maintained by Leone Timing.