MADISON, Wis.—Junior Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) continued his emergence as one of the top runners in the country and came in 34^th at the NCAA Championships to earn All-America honors on Saturday morning.  Comber ran the 10,000 meter race in 29:56.1 and helped Villanova come in 23^rd in the team standings at the national meet.  The finish was six spots higher than where the Wildcats were ranked entering the championships. 
 
Comber and junior Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.), both previous individual qualifiers for the NCAA Championships, showed their experience with strong races on a cold and snowy Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course.  About an inch of snow fell overnight prior to the race, giving the meet a classic cross country look for the championships.  Marston finished 70^th in the field of 252 runners with a time of 30:24.9 in his third career race at nationals. 
 
Villanova earned a team berth to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2014 and the 33^rd time overall.  The present and the future of the program was on display, as freshmen Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) and Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) were among the team's five scoring runners.  Phillips posted a time of 31:09.2 and finished 162^nd, while O'Donovan covered the 10K course in 31:57.2 and came in 215^th.  The final scorer for the Wildcats was junior Paul Power (Phoenixville, Pa.) in 219^th place with a time of 32:06.8. 
 
Senior Zach Swenson (Boulder, Colo.) and sophomore Martin Barr (Skokie, Ill.) rounded out the Villanova lineup with times of 32:38.5 and 32:45.6, respectively. 
 
Comber is the 39^th cross country All-American from the Wildcats and was one of four all-region performers in the Villanova lineup at NCAAs.  Last week at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional the Wildcats surged to a second place finish to earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships.  Villanova was ranked in six of the nine national polls released by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) during the season, and their poll position of 23^rd in the final national rankings represents a season best. 
 
Along the way to reaching the NCAA Championships, the Wildcats came in second at both the BIG EAST Championships and the NCAA regional meet, while having all five of its scoring runners earn All-BIG EAST recognition.  Comber and Marston combined to be named BIG EAST Male Athlete of the Week three times during the season.