BETHLEHEM, Pa.—All five Villanova scoring runners placed in the top 13 overall and the Wildcats won the team title at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday morning.  It is the first regional title for the team since 2014 and with it Villanova punched its ticket to the NCAA Championships next week.  This is the second year in a row that the Wildcats have earned a team berth to the national meet after a three-year absence. 
 
When the cross country calendar turns to the postseason conference, regional and national meets, it always takes a true team effort to place highly and finish well in the team standings.  Villanova has gotten exactly that in winning the BIG EAST and Mid-Atlantic titles in the last two weeks.  This is the second time since the current regional format began in 2000 that the Wildcats have placed each of their scoring runners among the top 13 finishers. 
 
Sophomore Josh Phillips (Belrose, Australia) led Villanova with a third place finish and posted a time of 30:02.0 over 10,000 meters on the Goodman Campus Course at Lehigh.  None of his teammates were far behind him.  Redshirt freshman Haftu Strintzos (Victoria, Australia) was on his heels in 30:02.9 in fourth place and the Wildcats had a gap of just 29 seconds separating their five scorers.  Graduate student Nathan Rodriguez (Tempe, Ariz.) placed seventh (30:10.6), while seniors Andrew Marston (Wayne, Pa.) and Casey Comber (Maple Glen, Pa.) were 10^th (30:15.7) and 13^th (30:31.9), respectively. 
 
"All credit to them," Villanova head coach Marcus O'Sullivan said.  "I think they've got great leadership.  They care for each other and I think you could just tell out there today that was their temperament.  I know we have a good team.  The struggle this year was with injuries, sickness and the inexperience of younger runners.  Trying to pull them together was a challenge but also very rewarding to see them come together."
 
The five scoring runners for the Wildcats in Friday's race were the same as who scored for the team at the BIG EAST Championships earlier this month.  They all finished in a different order in the lineup however, another positive sign of the team's depth.  Phillips led Villanova at the regional meet after finishing fifth on the team and 18^th overall in the conference race. 
 
"These guys are all being trained slightly differently, so to see them all out there harmoniously coming together is great to watch," O'Sullivan said.  "We didn't have much room for error.  It's kind of like the heat to a final and you still have to get to the final.  I knew Princeton and Georgetown have great guys with a lot of talent who can put it together on any given day.  Obviously we were able to do that today." 
 
Sophomore Charlie O'Donovan (Cork, Ireland) and junior Rob Morro (Media, Pa.) rounded out the Wildcats lineup.  O'Donovan came in 38^th overall with a time of 31:12.3 and Morro crossed the finish line in 32:21.3. 
 
Villanova had a winning team score of 37 points, its lowest since winning with 34 points in 2013.  Georgetown was second (67) and Princeton third (82).  By the four-mile mark of the race, O'Sullivan felt that his team recognized they were in good position to secure the team victory. 
 
"The goal is to have them ready for this weekend and next weekend, and you hope you don't get beat up too much today," O'Sullivan said.  "I could sense that with Nathan and Andrew today.  They kind of backed it off the last kilometer.  They knew we had it as a team.  That's experience at the end of the day.  Mrale wise what that does for you is gives you that comfort that you can ease back and take your foot off the gas just a little bit.  It was great to see them out there and I am kind of relieved it is done."
 
The NCAA Championships take place next Saturday (November 23) at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind.  It is the 12^th time in the last 16 years that the site will host the national meet.  The men's 10K championship race goes off at 12:15 p.m.