CARMEL, Ind.—Junior Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) broke away from the pack and closed with a dominant kick to win the individual title at the BIG EAST Championships on Saturday afternoon.  Comber is the 12^th individual conference champion from Villanova and the fifth in the last six years.  Junior teammate Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) came in third in the 8000 meter race and the Wildcats were the runner-up in a close finish in the team standings.  Villanova had three finishers in the top 10 and placed all five of its scoring runners in the top 16 overall. 
 
Comber crossed the finish line in 23:59.7 and held off the runner-up from Georgetown by nine seconds.  He had been a first team All-BIG EAST performer in each of the last two seasons before claiming his first conference crown in Saturday's race. 
 
"The mentality [going into the race] was Andrew and I were going to run up front and try to do our job," Comber said.  Hopefully the reset of the guys would fall in, but we went out hard and tried not to get locked in the pack.  I had some slips in our last race when it was muddy, so I wanted to make sure I avoided that and got the job done." 
 
Marston crossed the finish line in 24:16.5 and was followed by freshman Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) in 10^th place (24:58.5).  The trio of Comber, Marston and O'Donovan earned first team All-BIG EAST honors for their top-10 finishes.  Freshman Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) and sophomore Martin Barr (Skokie, Ill.) came in 15^th (25:12.0) and 16^th (25:12.4), respectively, and each garnered second team All-BIG EAST accolades. 
 
Villanova has now finished in the top two of the team standings 14 times at the BIG EAST Championships.  Georgetown won the team title with a score of 32 points, followed by Villanova (45) and Butler (53) in the top three.  This is the sixth time that the Wildcats have had at least five all-conference performers, including the fifth time in the last eight seasons. 
 
The race went out at a quick pace in favorable conditions, and both Comber and Marston quickly moved to the front of a tight pack of runners.  They were still in front at the midpoint of the race, with the leading runner from Butler and as many as four runners from Georgetown within a few strides of the lead.  Comber made sure that when he made his move it would be a decisive one. 
 
"There was a move made where Andrew picked it up a bit at 5K," Comber said of how the race unfolded.  "I felt good in responding to that and was able to hold off Wareham from Georgetown.  The conditions weren't bad.  There were a couple of slick spots, but just one turn on the hill that was slippery.  I just tried to make sure I got to the front on that turn so I wouldn't be sliding around and I could see where I was going."
 
Next up for Villanova is the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on November 9 at Penn State, where the Wildcats will have their sights set on qualifying for the NCAA Championships one week later.  Marston has been an individual qualifier for the national meet in each of the last two years and Comber earned a berth in the championships last year, but Villanova has not earned a team NCAA berth since 2014.