NEWVILLE, Pa. – The Shippensburg University men's cross country team suited up for the second time in eight days on Saturday with competition in Dickinson's "Long" Invitational and posted a second-place team finish in action at Doggie Jumper's renowned course on the campus of Big Spring High School.
 
SU enhanced its distance by additional 2,000 meters from last week, enduring an 8K on a muggy morning.
 
Tommy Crum Jr. returned to action and maintained a deliberate pace and came away from the day with a second-place finish in 25:51.6.
 
Youngsters Julian Clark, Seth Reichenbach, Ryan Gourley and Jaycen Conrad all finished consecutively in seventh through 10th place and were separated by just four seconds.
 
Clark's time was 26:41.3. Reichenbach and Gourley had identical times of 26:45.1, while Conrad crossed the finish line with a difference of only four-tenths of a second from his teammates.
 
Davey Johnson, Ramon Urena and Jackson Gutekunst came away from the race with new t-shirts by virtue of finishing in 13th, 14th and 15th place respectively. Johnson ran 26:48; Urena ran 26:50 and Gutekunst ran 26:56.
 
The Raiders placed second in the standings due to the race only having the Top 3 runners count toward the team score. West Chester had 16 points while SU had 17 points.
 
Shippensburg will now train for the next two weeks in advance of its next meet – the esteemed Paul Short Invitational on Friday, Oct. 2.
 
Note: The Dickinson Long/Short Invitational annually features four races – a Men's "Long" race (8K), a Men's "Short" Race (4K), a Women's "Long" Race (6K) and a Women's "Short" Race (4K)…this season, SU only competed in the respective "Long" races….due to the four races of various lengths being contested on the day and several schools having competitors split between the two distances, only the Top 3 runners per team are counted toward team scores…had Saturday's race been scored out to five competitors, SU would have been in first place with 36 points (2-7-8-9-10) while West Chester would have been second with 49 points (1-4-11-16-17).

Shippensburg (2nd, 17 points)
2. Tommy Crum Jr. 25:51.6
7. Julian Clark 26:41.3
8. Seth Reichenbach 26:45.1
9. Ryan Gourley 26:45.1
10. Jaycen Conrad 26:45.5
13. Davey Johnson 26:48.4
14. Ramon Urena 26:50.7
15. Jackson Gutekunst 26:56.3
20. Daniel Naylor 27:27.1
28. Brennan Wellock 28:05.9