Both Seton Hall cross country teams place second at Monmouth Kickoff

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams finished in second place at the 2016 Monmouth XC Kickoff Saturday. [caption id="attachment_14841" align="alignright" width="305"] Photo Courtesy of SHU Athletics[/caption] Juniors Bryant Cordova and Christiana Rutkowski led the men’s and women’s teams, respectively.  Cordova paced a Pirates team with five top 12 finishes in the 6K race. The race was Rutokowski’s first since 2014, as she was forced to sit out 2015 due to injury. Her return was vital to the Hall’s second-place finish, as she led all Pirates with a time of 15:21.1, giving her an 11^th place finish. Junior Emily Johnson and freshman Kassandra Yocco finished shortly after Rutkowski in 14^th and 15^th, respectively.  Yocco enjoyed an impressive collegiate debut with a time of 15:30.59. Sophomore Kiley Britten and senior Desyre Blackburn finished in 18^th and 22^nd, respectively, to give the Pirates five top-25 runners at the meet. Seton Hall would need every point, as Lafayette finished a mere one point behind. On the men’s side, Cordova led the Pirates with a time of 19:22.26, giving him a third-place finish. Cordova finished just five seconds off leader Graham Huggins-Filozof of Monmouth. He was also able to shed 22 seconds off his 2015 time at this event. In total, the Pirates had three top-ten finishes and five top-15 finishers. Junior Jake Simon dropped well over 20 seconds from last year to finish in sixth.  Juniors Louis Bustamante and Jeff Larson finished in eighth and 11^th.  Senior Cameron Quisenberry finished right behind Larson in 12^th. Both men’s and women’s cross country teams will return to action Saturday, Sept. 3 when they will participate in the Delaware Invitational. Andrew Lombardo can be contacted by email andrew.lombardo@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @Anlombardo8.