Seton Hall Prep cross-country team excels at Brown Northeast meet

The Seton Hall Prep cross-country team showed all-around team strength as both its varsity and JV squads placed second in the Brown Northeast Cross-Country Invitational at Goddard State Park in Rhode Island on Saturday, Oct. 19.

On a beautiful, cool, fall day tailor-made for cross-country running, both squads knew that this would be a day to run fast against schools from New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  The Prep’s grade-diverse varsity squad would set out in a fast, but controlled first mile, led by senior co-captain Colin Schweitzer (5:02) and junior Kevin Harvey (5:08). They were gamely followed by their teammates who navigated narrow and crowded trails with the last of the team’s seven passing the mile in 5:29.

As they approached the hill at mile two, each raced off the top, pushed down the flats and charged through the finish in personal bests. Schweitzer and Harvey would cross in fifth and sixth place, 15:51 and 15:55, respectively, both breaking under 16:00 minutes for the first time. Juniors Chris Gizzo and Luke Incardona gutted it out through the finish in 16:33 and 16:57, respectively.  Sophomore Ben Ferrara, with a late race surge, crossed in 17:00 and would be the final scorer for the squad. Senior Brian Phillips (17:05) and sophomore Danny Collum (17:08) would round out the varsity. The team would average 16:27 on the day.

In the opening race of the day, sophomore Anthony Bottino had a bold performance leading much of the race and fighting off a late race challenge to win in a personal best of 17:27. Junior Gabe Ferriero (personal cecord 18:01), senior Cristiano Ribeiro (18:31), senior Will Spies (18:35) and Paddy Sheppard (pr 18:39) would round out team scoring and contributed to the 18:15 team average.

SHP now sets its sights on the Essex County Championship at Brookdale Park on Friday, Nov. 1, at Brookdale Park in Bloomfield where they hope to build upon its victory at the Super Essex Conference two weeks ago.