BIDDEFORD, ME – The Saint Joseph's men's cross country team placed fifth with 179 points in the University of New England Invitational at Rotary Park in Biddeford on Saturday. Sophomore Joe DiSalvo (Derry, N.H.) paced the Royal Blue with a 30:54 effort and finished 19th out of 104 runners in the annual event.

With the top three finishers and four out of the first five, including individual winner Josh Grant, Lyndon State cruised to an easy victory with 27 points. Grant toured the course in 28:38 to claim his second consecutive UNE Invitational crown while teammates Kyle Powers (28:46) and Tyler Scheibenpflug (28:48) finished close behind to help the Hornets claim the team win.

Southern Maine finished with 46 points while UNE (60), Gordon (118) and St. Joe's rounded out the top five competing institutions.

For the Monks, freshman Taidghe Hagan (Reading, Mass.) placed 37th (33:10), sophomore Jeff Merrill (Fitchburg, Mass.) was 58th (35:25), freshman Andrew Caron (Gardiner, Maine) finished 65th (36:27), and first-year Billy Brooks (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) rounded out the SJC top five with a 72nd-place effort (37:02).

St. Joe's is off until the team competes in the Rivier College Invitational on Friday, September 21st in Nashua, New Hampshire.