WATERFORD, Conn.— Junior Nick Yacoub (Sharon, Mass.) recorded his third top-10 finish of the season to lead the Babson College men's cross country team to an 18th-place team finish at the Connecticut College Invitational Blue Race on Saturday afternoon at Harkness Park.

Babson recorded a team score of 470 in the meet, a solid improvement from last year's 543 points. The Beavers were just behind 17th-place Brandeis (447) and ahead of 19th-place Connecticut College (492). The meet, which included 11 of the top 30 teams from the latest Division III national coaches' poll, was won by No. 10 MIT (57), while No. 16 Williams (120) and No. 21 Wesleyan (173) came in second and third, respectively.

Yacoub crossed the finish line in eighth place among 241 finishers with a career-best time of 24:28, which is the third-fastest time in program history and bettered his 24:56 that he ran at last year's race. He was the third finisher from a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) school behind runner-up sophomore Everett Mosher of WPI (24:00) and third-place junior Renne Cooper of MIT (24:06). Junior Dylan Cote of Wesleyan was the individual winner in 23:52.

First-year Luca Masolo (Portland, Ore.) was the second finisher for the Beavers, coming in 117th place in a season-best time of 25:46. Junior Brian Ronayne (Reading, Mass.) placed 136th in a time of 25:56, sophomore Arthur Boulot (Geneva, Switzerland) finished 141st in a PR time of 25:58, and classmate Oliver Jones (Whanganui, New Zealand) rounded out Babson's top five in 146th place in 26:01.

Senior John Hanscom (Hadley, Mass.) crossed the line in 26:07, first-year Matteo Chiesara (Riverside, Conn.) came in at 26:14, followed by senior Brian Gall (Norwalk, Conn.) in 26:20, sophomore Connor Andrews (Wrightsville Beach, N.C.) in 26:22, and junior Daniel Garcia (Miami, Fla.) in a PR time of 26:37.

The Beavers had five entries in the White race, led by senior Ethan Jina (Carlisle, Mass.) who finished in a PR time of 26:25, and first-year Liam Deniau-Young (Salina, Kan.), who ran a season-best 26:28. Junior Almond Nickerson IV (Darien, Conn.) ran a 26:47, sophomore Calvin Volkmann (Sullivan's Island, S.C.) finished in 27:40, and senior Jack Gramer (Tyngsborough, Mass.) finished in 28:37.

With the regular season races in the books, the Beavers will compete at the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship on October 31 at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.