Princeton Wins NCAA Men's Cross Country Regional

Friday, November 9

University Park, Pa.

1:00 PM

Princeton University

NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

November 09, 2018 | Men's Cross Country

Final Results

The NCAA men's cross country regional at Penn State turned into a tri-meet between Princeton, Villanova and Georgetown, and the Tigers had the depth to make that work to their favor.

Those three teams have seven of the top eight finishers, three of whom were Princeton runners, compared to two each for the other two. Add in the fact that Princeton got the finishes it needed from of its fourth and fifth across the line, and the Tigers had themselves a second-straight Regional championship.

Princeton won the regional at Penn State on a 38-degree day with heavy, steady rain that turned the course very muddy.

The victory advances Princeton automatically to the NCAA championships, which will be held on the same course at the University of Wisconsin where the Tigers ran back in September. The NCAA final will be held next Saturday, Sept. 17.

"We had a marvelous day," said Princeton head coach Jason Vigilante. "Our goal all season was to qualify for the national championship, and we've done that. Despite the conditions, everyone stayed on their feet and we had a very good score. I'm so proud of our sophomores Matt Grossman and Eli Krahn who were our first and fifth runners."

Princeton, who won the Ivy League Heptagonal championship two weeks ago, finished the regional with 61 points, outdistancing second-place Villanova, who had 73, and third-place Georgetown, with 97.

Villanova's Casey Comber was the individual winner in 31:05, followed by Georgetown's Nicholas Wareham three seconds later. From there the Tigers took over.

First it was Matt Grossman in third place at 31:10 and Conor Lundy in 31:12 for fourth. After runners from Villanova and Georgetown came in fifth and sixth, Princeton's Gannon Willcutts took eighth place.

With the team title still very much up in the air after Villanova and Georgetown had the 14th and 15th finishers, Viraj Deokar finished 20th, edging Villanova's fourth-place man, Josh Phillips, who was 21st. David Krahn then wrapped it up with his 26th place finish, well ahead of Martin Barr of Villanova, who was 32nd. Georgetown's next finisher was in 55th.

This is Princeton's third NCAA regional title, following last year and 2010.

Princeton Finishers
3. Matt Grossman 31:09.5
4. Conor Lundy 31:11.5
8. Gannon Willcutts 31:15.6
20. Viraj Deokar 31:48.3
26. Eli Krahn 31:56.4
34. Ed Trippas 32:09.0
67. Perrin Hagge 32:47.8