ATTLEBORO, Mass.—Junior Nick Yacoub (Sharon, Mass.) captured the individual title to lead the Babson College men's cross country team to a second-place finish at the season-opening Suffolk Short Course Classic on Saturday morning at Highland Park. 

The Beavers totaled 85 points to finish second overall among 18 teams and first among the 15 Division III teams. New Hampshire (21) had four of the top five and six of the top eight finishers to claim the team title. Wentworth (110) finished in third place and UMass Dartmouth (112) and Franklin Pierce (140) rounded out the top five teams.

Yacoub crossed the finish line first among the 205 runners in the 5K race in a time of 15:30, comfortably ahead of New Hampshire junior Gavin Malark (15:50), senior Matthew Allen (15:58), and first-years Joshua Twomey (16:02) and Carson Fitzgerald (16:04). The second Division III runner was Fitchburg State sophomore Paulino Guevara Mateo, who was sixth overall in 16:07.

First-year Luca Masolo (Portland, Ore.) was the second finisher for the Beavers, coming in 14th place overall and sixth among Division III athletes in a time of 16:22. Sophomore Arthur Boulot (Geneva, Switzerland) and senior Brian Gall (Norwalk, Conn.) were 26th and 27th, respectively, in 16:39 and 16:41, and junior Daniel Garcia (Miami, Fla.) rounded out the top five for the Green and White in 30th place in 16:43.

Seniors Ethan Jina (Carlisle, Mass.) and John Hanscom (Hadley, Mass.) were 36th and 39th, respectively, in 16:55 and 16:59. Sophomore Connor Andrews (Wrightsville Beach, N.C.) came in 42nd in 17:02 and first-year Lucas Gonzalez (Pinecrest, Fla.) crossed the line 63rd in 17:32.

Babson returns to action at the Ellen O'Neil Invitational at Smith College on September 19.