Regional- and national-level high school and college competition is set to descend on the Lehigh Valley for the 49th running of the Paul Short Run. Follow along as we highlight the key storylines ahead of tomorrow's college action. Racing is set to start at 9:30 am with the men's open race. The gold races are scheduled to begin at 11:00 am.

Below are four storylines to look out for heading into the Paul Short Invitational gold races. 

Georgetown Women Look to Dominate

The Georgetown University women are currently ranked No. 11 (USTFCCCA Coaches’ Poll), and as such, they’re the heavy favorites entering the Paul Short Gold Race on Saturday. 

The Georgetown women most recently finished fifth at the University of Virginia Invitational. However, the teams that beat them are all ranked inside the Top 10. 

Chloe Scrimgeour provides an advantage for Georgetown as one of the best women in the nation. She ran 16:19 over 5k last week and is an Outdoor Track and Field All-American in the 5000m.

At last year’s Paul Short Run, she finished fourth, but she’ll be running for gold as one of the top returners in the field. 

Other ranked teams in the field include No. 24 Utah Valley, RV West Virginia, and RV Penn State.

Regional Battles Amongst the Division I Men

On the men’s side, nine regionally ranked programs from the Mid-Atlantic region will square off at Paul Short: No. 2 Princeton, No. 4 Navy, No. 5 Georgetown, No. 7 Penn State, No. 9 St. Josephs, No. 10 Monmouth, No. 11 Temple, No. 14 American and No. 15 Bucknell.

Princeton is coming off of a 15th-place finish at the Virginia College Invitational in Charlottesville, host of the 2023 NCAA Championships. As such, there was plenty of National level competition. Navy finished in 19th, while Georgetown finished in 22nd.

The Northeast Region also Features some inter-regional battles. No. 4 Stony Brook, No. 7 Yale, No. 10 UMASS Lowell, No. 11 Army West Point, No. 13 Boston U, No. 14 Buffalo, and No. 15 Brown are all set to compete.

National Level Competition in the DIII Ranks

On the men’s side, a battle between ranked Division III programs may steal the show on Saturday. Five ranked DIII programs will go toe-to-toe with each other: No. 3 UW La Crosse, No. 6 SUNY Geneseo, No. 9 Carnegie Mellon, No. 12 Johns Hopkins, and No. 18 Lynchburg.

La Crosse is coming off a win at the Carleton Running of the Cows. The team masterfully executed its game plan and placed 12 runners in the Top 20, averaging 25:24 (8K) with an 18-second compression between its top five. 

The Eagles are consistently amongst the best teams in Division III and made their 35th appearance at the NCAA Championship last year. They placed eighth at last year’s meet.

On the women’s side the story is no different.

Johns Hopkins, SUNY Geneseo, and UW-La Crosse are ranked fifth, sixth, and eighth. 

Johns Hopkins finished second at the Iona Meet of Champions, behind only Army West Point. Over the 5K course, the Blue Jays notched an 18:42 average with a 1:07 spread between their top five. 

SUNY Geneseo also recently performed well, winning the Harry F. Anderson Invitational. The team defeated 12 Division II and III programs by posting an 18:59 average.

The DIII programs will undoubtedly be gunning for each other as they look to secure higher ranks on one of the most competitive courses in the nation.

Don't Sleep On Wingate

Wingate, the sole Division II team in the Men’s Gold race, could be a factor.

The No. 3 Ranked Bulldogs finished 12th at last year’s Paul Short Run before finishing second at the NCAA National Championship.

They returned three starters from that runner-up finish, including Scott Nutter, who has consistently been the team’s ace. Nutter ran his 8K personal best of 23:35.3 on the Lehigh Goodman Campus course last year.

Wingate is just as threatening on the women’s side, ranked No. 13 in DII. Last year, the team won the Southeast Regional Championship before placing 23rd at the NCAA Championship.