WXC Heads to ECAC Championships in 2013 Finale
11/22/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 22, 2013
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall women's cross country squad will aim to close out a season that has seen the program take great strides with another strong showing at Saturday's 5K ECAC Championship meet.
The Pirates return to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx for their ninth and final appearance of the fall. SHU returns four scorers from last year's ECAC race and will look to improve their team finish for the second season in a row.
Senior Nyala Eddings (Chicago, Ill.) emerged as a new leader for The Hall in the 2012 finale, becoming the first runner to lead Seton Hall other than Hughnique Rolle in a stretch of 10 races, turning in what was at the time, her second-fastest 5K time as a Pirate. Now, as SHU's leader in every meet so far this 2013, Eddings is in position to close her career with a 10-meet streak of her own.
Mary Migton (Ledgewood, N.J.) placed second for Seton Hall in their last ECAC appearance and has repeated that feat in all eight meets of this, her junior season. Earlier in the year at the Metropolitan Championships which were also held at the famed VCP, Migton recorded her fastest 5K time of the season. She reached the line in 19:30.56 to finish 23rd overall and her mark stands as the second-fastest 5K time on the team this year.
Freshman Desyre Blackburn (Aloha, Ore.) also recorded her top 5K time at Van Cortlandt Park, clocking a 20:39.17. Blackburn has joined the fray the season and instantly become one of the team's most consistent contributors, totaling three top-15 finishes and placing third on the squad in all eight races.
The remaining returning scorers are a pair of sophomores in Amanda Quaglia (Reading, Pa.) and Alex Ryan (Aurora, Colo.) who placed fourth and fifth respectively in the final race of their freshman season. Quaglia is riding a recent run of good form, ranking in the team's top-five in the last two races. Ryan opened the year with the seventh scoring effort of her career and at the Mets, finished among the top-seven Seton Hall runners.
After having only six different scorers in 2012, 10 different runners have cracked the team's top-five in 2013 as senior Kristen May (Shrewsbury, Mass.) has added three scoring efforts to her tally while junior Allyson Guieb (Robbinsville, N.J.) and a trio of sophomores in Amanda Catherall (Farmingdale, N.Y.), Bri Miller (Bayonne, N.J.) and Samantha Young (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.) all did so for the first time in their careers.
Aside from Eddings, Migton and Blackburn who have comprised three-fifths of the Seton Hall scoring group in every race, Miller leads all other runners with four appearances in the team's top-five. May is tied with both Quaglia and Catherall at three while Ryan, Guieb and Young have all scored once.
Miller (21:06.00) and Catherall (21:28.20) own the fourth and fifth-best 5K times on the team by virtue of their performances at the Cappy Anderson Invitational.
Seton Hall will join 24 other squads with plans to unseat defending university division team champions Sacred Heart when the ECAC Women's University Division race begins at 12:15 p.m.
