Seton Hall University senior Hughnique Rolle took the spotlight this weekend at the 2012 Hofstra Brick Stone Run, taking first place out of 36 runners and helping the women's cross country team take second place in the event.
Rolle's win in the women's 5k race was the first win in program history. She finished with an overall time of 19:15.85 which beat her nearest competitor by 10 seconds.
Rolle has been the leader of the Pirates in their last four meets, and has gotten the team off to a strong start this season, with the team placing second in both meets this season.
The Pirates finished with an overall score of 37 points, falling a single point short to Big East rival St. John's.
The next runner to cross the finish line for the Hall was sophomore Mary Migton, who finished with an overall time of 19:41.91 which earned third overall among runners in the 5k.
Two other Seton Hall runners finished in the top 10 times in the race, as junior Nyala Eddings posted a time of 20:18.76 earing seventh place overall. Freshmen runner Amanda Quaglia took ninth place overall with a time of 20:24.54.
Senior Hughnique Rolle said that she felt very good about her win this weekend.
"It felt really good because I had never ran a cross country race here in the United states before," Rolle said. "Going in there I knew I could do it, I felt strong."
Rolle also commented on the team coming in second place behind St. John's.
"We were disappointed about that because we got beat by one point," Rolle said. "St. Johns has always been a team that was a little bit ahead of us so it was still a really big improvement for us, and that's really what we want to do, keep improving."
The team has another invitational meet in Maryland this coming weekend, which Rolle also commented on.
"We are basically going to try to do the same thing," said Rolle. "We are going to go out there and try our best. As a team if we keep working hard together we can go out there and probably beat our competition."
The men's cross country team also competed in the meet this weekend placing second.
Senior co-captain Jared Hanko led the team, taking fourth overall with a time of 16:35:40. Hanko has been the squad's top finisher posting top times in his last 11 races.
Junior Carl Johnston finished right behind Hanko placing sixth overall with a time of 16:36.18. Sophomore Tyler Orner took seventh place right behind Johnston with a time of 17:01.92, which was the first top-10 finish of the sophomore's career.
Senior Cory Hellwig took ninth with a posted time of 17:35.29 and freshmen Ryan Flannery finished right behind Hellwig in tenth with a time of 17.36.84.
The men's squad finished with a score of 36 points, falling short to NJIT who finished first with 19 points.
The men's team will also travel to Maryland this weekend to compete alongside the women's team in the UMES Cappy Invitational on Sunday.
Courtney Hnasko can be reached at courtney.hnasko@student.shu.edu
