Blaise Ferro sure did go out with a bang.
In the final cross-country race of his sensational college career, Ferro, the legendary distance stud out of Christian Brothers Academy, threw down the greatest performance of his life when he finished sixth to spark Northern Arizona University to the men's title at the NCAA XC Championships on Monday at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Ok.
Ferro, a 2016 graduate of CBA, covered the 10K course in 30:02.0 as the Lumberjacks packed four runners in the top nine on the way to a 60-87 victory over runner-up Notre Dame.
It's the fourth title in five years for NAU, who won three straight from 2016-18 and placed second in 2019.
Ferro, the only runner in NJ history to score on four winning teams at the XC Meet of Champions, also scored at the 2018 NCAA Championships when he was 26th overall and the No. 4 finisher for NAU as the Lumberjacks defeated runner-up BYU, 83-116.
There were some other NJ stars who competed.
Damien Dilcher, a sophomore who starred at Brick, finished 113th overall and was the No. 4 man for Iona to help the Gaels place 10th in the final team standings. It's the sixth time in the past 10 years that Iona has finished inside the top 10.
Syracuse senior Joe Dragon (High Point High School) finished 128th overall and No. 1 for his team with a time of 31:56.8.
Devin Hart, a redshirt freshman, placed 141st in 32:06.5 and was the No. 7 man for fifth-place Stanford. Hart racked up six Meet of Champions titles during his illustrious career at Point Pleasant Boro.
In the women's race, Alyssa Aldridge placed 165th overall and was the No. 4 runner for Georgetown to help the Hoyas finish 18th in the team standings. Aldridge won two Meet of Champions XC titles during her remarkable career at Mainland High.