MADISON, Wis.—Juniors Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) and Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) were in their customary places at the top of the Villanova lineup and the Wildcats tallied a 20^th place team finish in a strong field of teams at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Friday afternoon.  The field of 33 teams in the men's championship race included 19 nationally-ranked squads, including Villanova who came into the meet ranked No. 27 in the latest national top 30 poll. 
 
Comber has been the Wildcats top finisher in each of the first two meets of the 2018 campaign.  He came in 35^th overall out of 224 runners in Friday's meet at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course with a time of 23:51.8 over 8,000 meters.  Marston was 53^rd in 24:03.1, with he and Comber the only two upperclassmen among Villanova's five scoring runners. Freshman Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia), sophomore Nick Steele (Harvard, Mass.) and sophomore Martin Barr (Skokie, Ill.) crossed the finish line within five seconds of each other.  Phillips recorded a time of 24:49.5 to officially place 148^th, while Steele was 150^th in 24:49.8 and Barr 157^th with a time of 24:53.9. 
 
The level of competition at the Wisconsin meet was particularly impressive for this point in the season, with many of the nation's top teams competing in the meet to get a preview of the course which will host the NCAA Championships later this year.  Aside from the national rankings, the meet also had regional implications.  Noteworthy for the Wildcats was finishing ahead of fellow Mid-Atlantic Region squads Penn State and Penn, the latter of which Villanova has now defeated twice in as many outings this season. 
 
Rounding out the Wildcats lineup were junior Paul Power (Phoenixville, Pa.) and sophomore Rob Morro (Media, Pa.).  Power came in 167^th overall with a time of 25:01.2 and Morro finished 219^th in 26:20.6. 
 
Villanova also had four runners compete in the Men's "B" race earlier in the day.  Freshman Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) led that group with an 11^th place finish out of 92 runners.  He posted a time of 24:54.5 and was followed by junior Logan Wetzel (Saline, Mich.) with a time of 25:35.7, senior Zach Swenson (Boulder, Colo.) in 25:41.6 and sophomore Paul Nichols (Latham, N.Y.) with a time of 26:14.3.
 
After an idle upcoming week the Wildcats will return to action for the Princeton Invitational on October 13.