The men’s cross country team came in first place for the second straight week.

With their top five runners all finishing within 33 seconds of each other, the Bombers finished first out of 25 teams in the open race at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University.

Senior Morty Caster led the team, finishing 11th with a time of 26:26. Ithaca’s next three runners came from their deep sophomore class.

Sophomores Tim Shea, Ben Roque and Drew Hodge all crossed the finish line within 10 seconds of each other. Shea finished one spot behind Caster in 12th place with a time of 26:31. Roque and Hodge came in 14th and 18th overall respectively, with times of 26:35 and 26:41.

Fifth overall for the Bombers was senior Steve Mulhern, who led the way for Ithaca last week when they won the Highlander Invitational at Houghton College. At Lehigh, Mulhern placed 33rd overall with a time of 26:59.

Even though their team time was slower, Ithaca’s top finishers allowed them to beat the 2nd place team, Muhlenberg College, by six points.

Head Coach Jim Nichols’ decision to rest most of his top runners for the first two weeks of the season seems to be paying off. Running all of their top runners has propelled the team to wins at Houghton last Saturday and at Lehigh on Friday.