PRINCETON, N.J. – Led by the sub-25:00 performances of junior Zach Michon and graduate student captain Collin Crilly, the Saint Joseph's men's cross country squad turned in an extremely strong sixth-place team finish in a field of 20 teams at the 2018 Princeton Invitational, held at Princeton University's West Windsor Fields early Friday evening. The Hawks put three in the top 55 of the 8k race en route to a 228-point performance.

"We needed that meet coming out of the Paul Short Run race to get a better picture of where we are and what we can do," said head coach Mike Glavin following the race. "This was a positive race for us."

The race was one final opportunity to prepare for the upcoming 2018 Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championship, set for October 27.

Michon hit the one-mile split at 4:47.2 and continued to excel from there en route to a collegiate-best 8k time of 24:39.3, an improvement on his previous 8k PR, set just two weekends ago at the Paul Short Run, by 11.4 seconds. Michon edged out Villanova's Martin Barr and Columbia's Kenny Vasbinder for 20th in an overall field of 219 and was the top A-10 racer to finish the race in a field that included George Mason, George Washington, and La Salle. 

"I'm pretty excited about how we performed today," said Michon. "There were some big teams out here . . . Part of the things we were focusing on this time was getting out hard and making sure that we were in that place that we wanted to be early on, because it has a big effect on the team placement in the end. I'm proud of how we did today. We held our own against these big teams, and going into the conference meet, that's giving us a lot of confidence."

Crilly used a 4:47.2 one-mile split to initiate a new collegiate-best time in the 8k, going 24:54.1 in the first sub-25:00 performance of his collegiate career, Crilly's time was an improvement on his previous 8k PR, set at West Windsor Fields at the 2016 Princeton Invitational, by 19.8 seconds. 

"That's what it's going to be like at the conference meet," added Crilly on Michon's statement. "You have to go out hard to put yourself in it, and I think we did a good job with that today. I was very pleased to get under and finally see '24' when I crossed, so I'm overall very happy."

The Hawks saw a pair of immeasurable contributions from their third and fourth runners, as senior Jack Daly (25:09.3 PR) and sophomore Matthew Scarpill (25:13.7 PR) finished 53rd and 59th, respectively, in collegiate-best 8k performances; it marked the first West Windsor Fields race of Scarpill's young career.

Senior Sean Macpherson rounded out the scoring for the Crimson and Gray in 25:24.0, his fastest 8k since October 15, 2016, also set at the Princeton Invitational, for 75th overall.

In his West Windsor Fields debut, senior Will Sponaugle (80th, 25:26.9 PR) dropped nearly 30 entire seconds off of his 8k PR, set just two weekends ago at the Paul Short Run, to finish as SJU's #6 runner while senior Shawn Hutchison (96th, 25:41.5) went as SJU's #7.

Of note, junior Joey Angelina earned a spot on SJU's race roster and took full advantage of his opportunity, crossing as SJU's #8 runner (out of 12) in 25:42.0, crushing his previous 8k PR by an astounding 58 seconds. 

Select Hawks will race the Lafayette Invitational tomorrow morning at Lafayette College's Metzgar Fields in Easton, Pa., beginning at 10:00 a.m.