Men’s and women’s cross country with impressive finishes at Mid-Atlantic Championships

Seton Hall Athletics

The Seton Hall men and women’s cross country teams both had notable finishes at the Mid-Atlantic Championships at Penn State on Friday.

The men’s team placed 23^rd at the 10K, while the women placed 25^th in the 6K.

On the women’s side, it was freshman Christina Rutkowski placed 77^th and senior Mary Migton finished 94^th in a group of 207 competitors. Rutkowski led the team with a time of 22:21. The freshman helped The Hall surpass a group of teams that included Robert Morris, UMES, Marshall and NJIT and would have been the top finisher for seven other teams.

Migton crossed the finish line 12 seconds after Rutkowski to give the Pirates more top-100 finishers than Towson, Lafayette, Saint Joseph’s, Saint Francis and Loyola Maryland.

Sophomore Desyre Blckburn ranked third on the team with a final time of 24:44 while freshmen Bailey Seach and Emily Curran clocked in at 26:01 and 26:25.

Big East champion Katrina Coogan claimed first in the event and led Georgetown University to another team title.

On the men’s side, sophomore Victor Ricci paced the Pirates on the day, clocking in a time of 33:40.

The second group of finishers succeeded in running as a pack as the next five Pirate runners across the line were only eight places apart.

Coming in second for the Hall was freshman Bryant Cordova with a time of 34:09. Senior John Walsh continued to be one of the team’s most consistent performers, ranking third with a time of 34:26.

Freshman Jeff Larson reached the line just two seconds later while sophomore Cameron Quisenberry closed out a scoring group that consisted of four underclassmen with a 35:12 effort.

In the regional competition, fellow Big East team Georgetown finished as the runner-up.

The men’s team will close the 2014 season next Saturday, November 22 at the IC4A Championships. Start-time is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, while the women will also head to Van Cortlandt Park next Saturday for the ECAC Championships.

Olivia Mulvihill can be reached at Olivia.mulvihill@student.shu.edu