WXC Eyes Strong Finish at NCAA Regional
11/14/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 14, 2013
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - 13 days after taking the course at the 2013 BIG EAST Championships and collecting a ninth place finish, the Seton Hall women's cross country team will return to action tomorrow when they head to Bethlehem, Pa. for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.
Last season, the Pirates finished 27th out of 31 teams but the squad returns four runners who scored at the meet a year ago and also boasts a group of newcomers that have made their mark through the first seven races of 2013.
Senior Nyala Eddings (Chicago, Ill.) finished third for The Hall as a junior and the 2012 race stands as the last time she did not rank as the Pirates' top finisher. Eddings capped last season with a team-best effort at the ECAC Championships and has paced the squad in every event this season.
When Eddings is on the course there has been a good chance that junior Mary Migton (Ledgewood, N.J.) is not far behind as the duo has finished back-to-back in five of seven events this season and ranked as the top two SHU performers in every race. Last time out, Migton scored at the BIG EAST Championships for the third time in her career and will return to the Regional after placing fourth on the squad at the event last fall.
Making her first regional appearance will be Desyre Blackburn (Aloha, Ore.), a freshman who has placed third for Seton Hall in all seven of her career races. Blackburn has been consistent at every distance the Pirates have tackled thus far; and will get her third look at a 6,000-meter course this season after having posted times in the mid-24 minute range in her first two such outings.
The surprise performer of the meet last season at the regionals was Amanda Quaglia (Reading, Pa.), who placed second among all Pirates in what was the penultimate race of a freshman campaign in which she scored in all nine events that Seton Hall entered. Quaglia battled injuries early in 2013, but bounced back nicely to finish as one of the team's top-five runners at the conference championship for the second year in a row.
While Quaglia surprised during her first appearance at the NCAA event, classmate Amanda Catherall (Farmingdale, N.Y.) has been turning heads with her recent form, transforming into one of the team's most steady competitors during the latter part of the season. After not scoring in her first 10 career appearances, Catherall has scored for The Hall in three of the last four races; highlighted by a career-best fourth-place team finish at the BIG EAST Championships.
On the eve of the NCAA Regional, Quaglia and Catherall sat down to discuss their development and how the experience of the conference championship will aid their efforts against a loaded field on Friday.
In all, 10 of the 16 members of the women's team have scored at least once this season as the team's enhanced depth has yielded improved results. Senior Kristen May (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and sophomore Bri Miller (Bayonne, N.J.) have both ranked in the team's top-five on three occasions while Allyson Guieb (Robbinsville, N.J.) and Samantha Young (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.) have scored once, as has Alex Ryan (Aurora, Colo.) who is the fourth returning scorer from the 2012 Regional along with Eddings, Migton and Quaglia.
Georgetown enters the meet as the top-ranked team in the Mid-Atlantic Region according to the most recent USTFCCCA poll but fourth-ranked Penn State is the defending champion and #5 Villanova has won at least a share of three out of the last four regional titles.
Race action is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning.
