Oct. 28, 2006

FORT WAYNE, IN - Sophomore Umar Saeed was the top finisher for New Jersey Institute of Technology in the national Division I Independents cross country championship race on Saturday.

In the race, hosted by Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Saeed covered the course in 26:33.3, which was good for 13th place in a race won by senior Chris Ferren-Cirino of UC-Davis in 25:19.3.

As a team, the Highlanders were eighth, while UC-Davis was the winning team, placing four runners in the top eight for the race. Other participating teams were: North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Texas-Pan American, Utah Valley State, Longwood, IPFW, NJIT and Chicago State.

Here are the other finishers for NJIT: Duc Tran (41st; 28:28.2); Babatunde Busari (46th; 28:58); Tchaz Amevor (49th; 29:15.4); Bryan Louvado (50th; 29:45.1); Mike Genauer (51st; 30:10.5) and David Kloc (53rd; 31:12.1)

The Highlanders will host, but not compete in the Nick Russo Halloween Classic on Sunday at Van Cortlandt Park and the season will conclude with selected runners competing in the ECAC/IC4A championships on November 18, also in Van Cortlandt Park.