DARTMOUTH, Mass.—Sophomore Nick Yacoub (Sharon, Mass.) finished second among Division III runners and 16th overall to help the Babson College men's cross country team place ninth in the UMass Dartmouth Invitational at the Bob Dowd Course on Saturday. 

The Beavers' finished with 265 points and were 40 points ahead of their top Division III competitor, Connecticut College. Boston University came in first among all 32 teams with 60 points on the 8k course. 

Yacoub bettered his previous personal best with a time of 24:57. His time ranks seventh in program history and is the second fastest in school annals at UMass Dartmouth behind only Anthony Rodriguez '24 M'25, who posted a time of 24:29 on the Bob Dowd Course back in 2021. 

First-year Oliver Jones (Whanganui, New Zealand) placed 55th overall with a time of 26:00, sophomore Bryan Ronayne (Reading, Mass.) crossed the finish line in a career-best time of 26:01 to come in 57th and the duo of junior Jonathan Hanscom (Hadley, Mass.) and first-year Calvin Volkmann (Sullivan's Island, S.C.) were separated by less than a second. Hanscom finished 73rd with a new personal best (26:21), while Volkmann was 75th in 26:22. 

First-year Arthur Boulot (Geneva, Switzerland) finished 81st with a time of 26:28, junior Brian Gall (Norwalk, Conn.) also recorded the top time of his career placing 94th in 26:39, and first-year Connor Andrews (Wrightsville Beach, N.C.) posted a time of 26:44 in his 8k debut. 

Babson returns to action on Friday, October 10, when it travels to Hopkinton, N.H., for the Hopkinton XC Festival.