BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Against some of the top runners and programs in the country, junior Will Geoghegan (Brunswick, Maine) ran to a fifth-place finish in 24:15 Friday morning at the Paul Short Invitational.

Geoghegan's time helped the Dartmouth men's cross country team finish the 8K Gold Race fourth in a field of 37 teams with 175 points. The closest Ivy League program in the standings was Cornell's sixth-place showing (202 points) with Yale coming in seventh (255).

"I'm very happy with how well the team ran this morning," Herbert Chase Head Coach Barry Harwick said following the meet's conclusion. "Will (Geohegan) ran with confidence and that showed in the results. This was a big leap for us over last year and it came against great competition."

More than 330 runners lined up at the starting line, but only four were able to better the time of the Big Green junior harrier just three weeks after winning the season-opening Dartmouth Invitational.

Fellow junior John Bleday (Westwood, Mass.) also was strong on this day, placing 22nd overall in 24:35. After one meter, Bleday was second, behind just Geoghegan before the pace of competition picked up.

Jonathan Gault (Bedford, Mass.) crossed the line shortly after Bleday. The senior's official time was 24:40 and earned him a 29th-place showing.

Sophomore Dylan O'Sullivan (Harrowsmith, Ontario) and senior Phil Royer (Portsmouth, R.I.) rounded out the scoring for Dartmouth, finishing 59th and 60th, respectively, with matching times of 25:03.

Senior Mike Danaher (Clifton Park, N.Y.) just missed out on earning points for the Big Green, crossing a second later in 62nd place. Fellow senior Adam Doherty (Lagrangeville, N.Y.) was the seventh runner in the Green and White to finish, doing so 70th overall in 25:11.

Last season at this meet, the Big Green finished eighth with 264 points.

The team will be back in action next weekend when it heads to Boston for the New England Championship on Saturday, Oct. 6, before one of its biggest tests of the season on Friday, Oct. 12 in Madison for the Wisconsin Invitational.