GORHAM, ME – The Saint Joseph's College men's cross country team placed 16th with 524 team points in the University of Southern Maine Invitational 8K on Saturday. Freshman Cody Vachon (Shapleigh, Maine) paced the Royal Blue and finished in 141st out of 284 runners with a 28:32 performance.

MIT, which claimed the women's title as well, completed the sweep of the day's events by clinching the men's title with 37 points, well ahead of runner-up Bates College, which registered 85 points in the five mile race. Bowdoin College (86 points), Tufts University (95) and Amherst College (113) closed out the top five participating programs on Saturday.

Bowdoin senior Coby Horowitz captured top individual honors after touring the five mile loop in 25:11.51, just over a second faster than the time (25:12.58) posted by runner-up Mike Martin of Bates College. MIT senior Roy Wedge placed third (25:20), Connecticut College senior Michael LeDuc was fourth (25:21) and MIT junior Benji Xie finished fifth (25:23) in the hotly-contested race.

For Saint Joseph's, junior captain Joe DiSalvo (Derry, N.H.) placed 155th (28:47), freshman Nick Shuckrow (Winslow, Maine) was 160th (28:51) and senior Faisal Abdillahi (Lewiston, Maine) finished 180th (29:15). Andrew Caron (Gardiner, Maine) (229, 31:23), Taidghe Hagan (Reading, Mass.) (235, 31:59), Jeff Merrill (Fitchburg, Mass.) (259, 34:53) and Matt Boucher (Augusta, Maine) (272, 36:39) also raced for the Monks.

Saint Joseph's will race in the Bowdoin College Invitational next Saturday.

Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.