SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The Bard College men's cross country team placed eighth at the Western New England Invitational on Saturday, the best finish for Bard at the event in five years.

Complete results

"The goal for this meet was to switch to some different race tactics as we gear up for the Liberty League Championships," Bard coach Billy Poole-Harris said. "We were coming off a nice built-in break, so we accounted for that going into the meet."

Oliver Pawelek led Bard with a 39th-place finish.

"Oliver was our low stick for this meet after taking a month off," Poole-Harris said. "He stuck to the plan just fine, really focused on the middle of the race. We live and die by our pack running, and it is getting better and better. Darrion Thornburgh, Calvin Janzen-Chappell, Jack Keelan and Andres Block-Martinez kept it together for most of the race, which is solid going into next week."

The Liberty League Championships are next, on Oct. 30 in Saratoga.