West Deptford grad Jacob Cobb and the MIT Beavers easily won the NCAA Division 3 East Region Championships Saturday at the Hopkinton (N.H.) Fairgrounds.
Cobb placed 29th out of 229 runners, covering the 6,000-meter course in 25:42.0. That’s less than five seconds off his lifetime-best for any course, a 25:37.3 set at the New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference Championships last month in Attleboro, Mass.
Cobb earned USTFCCCA all-region honors with a top-35 finish.
Massachusets Institiute of Technology of Cambridge, Mass., is ranked 3rd in NCAA Division 3, behind only Wisconsin-La Crosse and North Central of Naperville, Ill. The regional title was MIT’s 3rd in a row and 6th overall.
MIT outscored 2nd-place Tufts of Medford, Mass., 35-57 to win the team title and secure the one automatic berth into NCAA Division 3 nationals. Some 22 at-large berths from non-winning teams in the 10 regions will be announced on Sunday.
Cobb placed 13th late last month in the NEWMAC Championships, where he was the 1st sophomore across the line.
MIT will travel to Newville, Pa., about 40 miles west of Harrisburg, where it will defend its 2022 NCAA Division 3 championship on the course adjacent to Big Spring High School on Saturday.
MIT won last year’s title 82-129 over Wartburg College of Waverly, Iowa, in Lansing, Mich.
This past spring, Cobb was runner-up in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NEWMAC Championships in Cambridge.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 