NEWARK, N.J. – The TCNJ men's cross country competed in two 8-kilometer courses in Saturday's NJIT XC Invitational, with Will Nelson and Ryan Faulkner leading their respective outfits with their top-ten finishes.
 
In the invitational race that was chock-full of talent, Nelson finished as the top Division-III runner with an eight-place run (25:21.82). Silas Matteson (50^th, 27:11.18) and Tyler Hurst (52^nd, 27:13.19) were the next two Lions across the finish line, followed by Declan Butler (60^th, 27:30.10), Damian Smutek (68^th, 27:44.61), Stephen Martin (72^nd, 27:56.81), and Ryan McCann (73^rd, 28:02.66). With all of their runners placing inside the top 75, the Lions were able to log an impressive 6^th-place finish out of 22 teams. Out of DIII squads, TCNJ placed second.
 
In the open race, Ryan Faulker cracked into the top ten with a time of 27:46.10 (10^th). Matthew McDevitt followed him across the finish line a few seconds later in 11^th (27:55.67), with David Keefe (15^th, 28:25.83) and Jack Segalla (17^th, 28:37.48) joining the pair in the top 20. The five other Lions — Luke Silverman (23^rd, 29:00.21), Tyler Smith (24^th, 29:00.94), Anthony Thomas (25^th, 29:06.32), Ahmed Abdalla (26^th, 29:13.34), and Marc Monti (30^th, 29:23.40) — logged positive runs by finishing inside the race's top 30. As a team, the Lions finished runners-up with 58 points.
 
The Lions will prepare for a longer trip north next week, as they look ahead to the Connecticut College Invitational on October 17.