UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—With juniors Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) and Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) leading the way at the top of the Villanova lineup, the men's cross country team tallied a second place finish at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday afternoon and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships next week.  Comber was the individual champion at the regional meet and led the Wildcats to their first berth in the national championships since 2014.  He and three other Villanova runners placed in the top 25 overall and earned all-region honors. 
 
This is the sixth time overall and the first time since 2014 that the Wildcats have won the team title at the Mid-Atlantic meet.  Comber is the fourth individual region champion from Villanova in the last six years, and it is also the 15^th time in the 19-year history of the current NCAA regional format that the Wildcats have had four or more Mid-Atlantic All-Region performers. 
 
Comber covered the 10,000 meter course in 31:05 and had a three-second margin of victory over the runner-up from Georgetown and the rest of the field of 169 runners.  Villanova got off to a strong start with Marston and Comber at the front of the lead pack, putting the Wildcats in strong position to earn one of the two automatic spots to nationals.  Official splits from the race showed Villanova second in the team standings at the two mile mark and in the lead after four miles. 
 
This is the third straight year that both Comber and Marston have been all-region performers.  Marston came in third overall in Friday's race with a time of 31:13, while freshmen Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) and Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) were the Wildcats other top-25 finishers.  O'Donovan came in 14^th overall in 31:42 and Phillips was 21^st with a time of 21:49.  Sophomore Martin Barr (Skokie, Ill.) was the team's fifth scoring runner, coming in 32^nd overall and recording a time of 32:03.  Senior Zach Swenson (Boulder, Colo.) and sophomore Nick Steele (Princeton, Mass.) rounded out the Villanova lineup with times of 32:37 and 33:03, respectively. 
 
Friday's race was an opportune time for the Wildcats to have their best race of the season to date.  Villanova was ranked third in the Mid-Atlantic Region behind Princeton and Georgetown after finishing second to those teams, respectively, at the Princeton Invitational and the BIG EAST Championships over the last month.  The race for the two automatic NCAA berths shaped up to be too close between the three teams entering the meet, which was later evidenced by the final scores.  Princeton came in first at the regional with 61 points, followed by the Wildcats with 73 and Georgetown with 99. 
 
Next up for Villanova will be the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Madison, Wis. next weekend.  This will be the 33^rd appearance overall for the Wildcats at the national meet.  Villanova has won four NCAA men's cross country titles, produced two individual national champions and had a total of 38 All-Americans over the years.  Prior to being a part of this year's team NCAA berth, Marston and Comber had each been individual qualifiers for nationals.  Marston competed at the NCAA meet in each of the last two seasons, while Comber made his debut at the championships last year.