CUMBERLAND, Maine -- Junior Tyler Jasud (Rumford, Maine/Mountain Valley) of the University of Southern Maine won his third race of the season Saturday taking the top spot at the 2008 Maine State Men’s Cross Country Championship held at the Twin Brook Complex in Cumberland, Maine.

Bowdoin College edged the Huskies by eight points, 34-42, for its fourth consecutive team title. This was the Huskies second straight runner-up finish. Bates College was third with 52 points, and Colby College finished fourth with 153.

Jasud covered the 8,00-meter course in a time of 25 minutes, 47.82 seconds to finish nearly 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Thompson Ogilvie of Bowdoin. Jasud’s winning time was one of the fastest ever turned in on the men’s 8,000-meter course. Jasud’s victory gave USM its second straight individual champion following Curtis Wheeler’s win last fall.

Junior Justin Richardson (Turner, Maine/St. Dominic) was the second USM runner across the line in fourth place with a time of 26:08.61. Freshman Alex Gomes (Peabody, Mass.) came home in eighth place, just missing All-State honors (top seven), with his time of 26:26.20.
Senior Nick Downing (Winthrop, Maine) came in 13th place in 26:49.82 and junior JJ Forcella (Falmouth, Maine) was 17th overall in 27:02.92.

After a week off, the Huskies will defend their Little East Conference and New England Alliance championships on November 1. The race will be hosted by Westfield (Mass.) State College.