CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — The New Jersey City University men's and women's cross country teams returned to action today, Saturday, Oct. 8, and the Gothic Knights performed well at the highly-competitve DeSales University Invitational. The men placed 14th overall, while junior Jake Sisk (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) set a PR in the men's 8k event with a time of 28:30.00 to lead NJCU.

For the men, senior Jaime Tlatelpa (Jersey City, N.J./University Academy Charter) was nine spots behind Sisk in the final standings and registered a time of 28:40.20. Junior Topu Saha (Jersey City, N.J./William L. Dickinson) posted a time of 29:50.20, followed by senior Adnan Kpodo (Irvington, N.J./Irvington) and his time of 31:10.60. Freshman Josue Palau (Elizabeth, N.J./Dwyer Tech) crossed the finish line in 31:47.20 and neck and neck with him was sophomore Vladimir Pericles (Elizabeth, N.J./Thomas Edison Academy), who ended up with a time of 31:47.30.

On the women's side of things, senior Tiffany Ortiz (Jersey City, N.J./University Academy Charter) led the pair of Gothic Knight runners and notched a time of 27:11.80 in the 6k event, followed by sophomore Nyla Boyd (Thomson, Ga./Thomson) and her time of 30:10.80.

Up Next:
This was the final tune-up for both squads as they now take off a few weeks in preparation for the 2022 New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Championships, which will be hosted by The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., on Saturday, Oct. 29. The teams have already run on the championship course when they opened the season at the TCNJ Blue/Gold Invitational on Sept. 2.