Seton Hall's Men's and Women's Cross Country teams competed in the Big East preview on Sept. 12, hosted by Syracuse University, with the men finishing fifth out of seven teams and the women finishing seventh out of nine teams.
The race was the teams second meet of the 2010 fall season. The teams ran in the meet 5K and 6K races.
The men's team competed against Syracuse, De Paul, University of South Florida, Le Moyne, SUNY- Environmental Science and Forestry and Bryant & Stratton.
The women competed against the same teams as well as the University of Connecticut and West Virginia.
In both races Syracuse finished the race in first place.
The first male runner to finish for the Pirates was sophomore Jared Hanko.
Hanko finished 28th with a time of 20:06. Following Hanko for the men was senior Tom Corona who ran 21:06 to finish in 39th. Rounding out the top three for the men was junior Erik Chester, who finished 41st with a time of 21:12.
Sophomore Hughnique Rolle, set the pace for the Hall women with a 46th place finish and a time of 22:25.
Placing just behind Rolle was sophomore Eloisa Paredes in 49th place with a time of 22:46.
The race was held in Jamesville Beach County Park, outside of Syracuse, NY, which was "real challenging" according to Moon.
He added that the course had diversity with hills, as well as wooded and open areas.
"A good course has lots of diversified terrine" head coach John Moon said.
Coach Moon wanted Seton Hall to participate in the BIG EAST preview so that the team could be familiar with the course for the BIG EAST Championship that will be held on Oct. 30.
Looking ahead for the Men's and Women's Cross Country teams, coach Moon anticipates the Eastern College Athletics Conference, the BIG EAST Championship and the NCAA Regional, which will be hosted by Pennsylvania State University, to be the most challenging meets to come this season.
"The competition will be awesome at Penn", added Moon.
Coach Moon's "top guys" include Hanko, Rolle, freshman Carl Johnston, sophomore Eloisa Paredes, junior Andrew O'Leary and senior Alexandra Hehn; all of whom Coach Moon is "looking forward to be on top this weekend"
Both teams next compete in the University of Delaware Invitational on Sept. 18 in Newark, Del.
Alexandra Lubischer can be reached at alexandra.lubischer@student.shu.edu
