Oct. 8, 2006

NEWARK, NJ - New Jersey Institute of Technology sophomore Umar Saeed ran nearly two minutes ahead of the field and broke his own school record for the five-mile Branch Brook Park course by 5/10 of a second in Sunday's Highlander Invitational.

New personal bests abounded among the rest of the Highlanders, who joined Saeed to run the fastest five-man average for five miles in school history, averaging 27:46.

Saeed's time in winning the race was 25:53.4 and teammate Duc Tran was second at 27:38, nearly two minutes faster than his time on the same course last year. Babatunde Busari was third among Division I runners and fourth overall, at 27:58, while captain David Kloc came in at 28:38, a personal best some 39 seconds faster than a year ago,

Freshman Tchaz Amevor ran a 28:45, while Mike Genauer's 29:23 was minute and a half faster than his 2005 time. Freshman Jamil Wilkins, who has already beaten the goal set for him by the coaches in preseason, came in at a personal-best 29:34 and classmate Bryan Louvado ran his best time for five miles at 29:39.

The Highlanders defeated the other Division I entrant, Saint Peter's, 15-49.

NJIT's next scheduled action is on October 14 in the CTC Championship, hosted by DeSales University in Allentown, PA.