STANDISH, ME – Saint Joseph's College hosted the 2011 Runnin' Monks Invitational 8K on Saturday afternoon finished fifth out of nine competing institutions with 138 team points. Freshman Joe DiSalvo (Derry, N.H.) paced the Royal Blue with a 29:27 effort to place ninth overall.

Johnson & Wales University captured top team honors for the third consecutive season with 29 points after four placing four of the top five runners and Lyndon State College, with four of the top eight individuals, finished as the runner-up with 33 points. University of New England was a distant third with 98 points and was followed by Maine-Farmington (104), Saint Joseph's (138), Lasell College (165), Thomas College (199), Maine-Machias (210), and Daniel Webster College (248).

Lyndon State junior Josh Grant (Nashua, N.H.) notched top individual honors with a 27:11 effort and a quartet of JWU runners followed, as junior Jeff Hartmann (Osseo, Minn.) (27:50), junior Greg Redfield (Penfield, N.Y.) (28:22), sophomore Brian Dinan (Geneva, N.J.) (28:32), and senior Nathan Smith (Jamesberg, N.J.) (28:45) placed second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

For the Monks, Faisal Abdillahi '14 (Lewiston, Maine) toured the 8K course in 30:56 to finish 17th, Matt Boucher '15 (Augusta, Maine) placed 36th (33:43), Andrew Mockler '12 (Saco, Maine) was 41st (34:28), and Jeff Letellier '12 (Biddeford, Maine) ended up 49th (35:03). Jeff Merrill '15 (Fitchburg, Mass.) (58th, 38:11) and Tyler Shennett (72nd, 47:57) also competed in the event.

Saint Joseph's will take to the trails again next Saturday when the Monks participate in the State of Maine Championship at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester at 12:00 PM.