Cross Country Finalizes Fall Schedule
8/6/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Seton Hall men's and women's cross country teams will once again take part in six regular-season meets as part of the 2014 fall schedule, the program has announced.
The Pirates begin the 2014 campaign locally with the Monmouth XC Kick-Off on August 30, the first of three consecutive weekends on which the team will compete to open the new season. The Monmouth XC Kick-Off typically features a shorter distance to help ease runners back into competition.
On September 7, SHU will return to Long Island for the Hofstra/St. John's Fall Festival, a race that featured six total top-10 individual finishes between the two squads a year ago.
The next week, September 13, the teams will take to the road again when they travel to Newark, Del. for the Delaware Invitational - the third consecutive meet which the Pirates will be making an appearance at for at least the second consecutive year.
Over the first three meets in 2013, the Seton Hall squads combined to post five runner-up finishes.
The lone deviation from last year's slate comes in the fourth week of the season when instead of toeing the line once again at the UMES Cappy Anderson Invitational, the Pirates will travel further south to be a part of the field at the Asics Embry-Riddle Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Following the trip to the Sunshine State, both squads will have a nearly two weeks off from competition before returning to the course at the prestigious Metropolitan Championship meet (Friday, October 10) where The Hall will square off with the top teams in the area.
The Mets will mark the first of two trips The Hall will make to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y. - returning for the season finale at the ECAC/ICAAAA Championships on Saturday, November 22.
For the ninth time in as many years, the Pirates will close the regular season at the Leopard Invitational, an event hosted by Lafayette College and slated for October 18 in Easton, Pa.
With the program still in the early stages of transitioning to exclusively cross country, longtime head coach John Moon explained the consistency in the schedule.
"Our schedule is constructed in a way that helps us more clearly monitor our progress," said Moon. "We have improved our results at these meets in recent years and with the data that we have, we can go back and measure where we are compared to past seasons and make the necessary adjustments."
The championship season begins on Friday, October 31 at the 2014 BIG EAST Championships. The conference meet will be held in Indianapolis, Ind. for the first time in its history.
The BIG EAST is filled with cross country talent with all 10 institutions competing including two men's teams and three women's squads that finished among the top-30 teams in the nation in the final U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) poll of 2013.
Following a week off after the conference championships, Seton Hall will head to Bethlehem, Pa. for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday, November 14.
Pending performance at the Mid-Atlantic Regional, the Pirates will conclude their season on November 22 at either the aforementioned IC4A/ECAC Championships at Van Cortlandt Park or the NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Ind.
The Seton Hall men's team will return 13 members from a squad that picked up four second place finishes in 2013, led by sophomores Cameron Quisenberry (Owensboro, Ky.) and Victor Ricci (Narragansett, R.I.) who each placed among the top-five on the team in all nine appearances last season.
Ricci has been named a team captain along with returning captains Ryan Flannery (Forked River, N.J.) and Tyler Orner (Sinking Spring, Pa.) as well as senior Kevin Walsh (Deltaville, Va.).
The SHU women recorded three runner-up performances last fall and will welcome back a slew of accomplished underclassmen to compliment the veteran leadership of Mary Migton (Ledgewood, N.J.) - a medalist at last year's ECAC Championships.
Migton and sophomore Desyre Blackburn (Aloha, Ore.) each scored for The Hall in all nine meets last season and will share captain duties with junior Amanda Catherall (Farmingdale, N.Y.) and senior Bri Miller (Bayonne, N.J.) who each made tremendous strides as individuals last fall.
Click HERE to view the entire schedule for 2014.
