Seton Hall Prep cross-country team improves to 7-0 in conference

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Seton Hall Prep cross-country team had another great week last week. On Wednesday, Sept. 29, the Pirates traveled to Branch Brook Park in Newark to take on Millburn and West Orange. They defeated Millburn, 25-31, and West Orange,15-50, to raise their conference record to 7-0 on the season. Scoring for Seton Hall were seniors Anthony Bottino, 17:40, third place, Danny Collum, 17:44, fourth, Ben Ferrara, 17:59, sixth, sophomore Connor Schmit,18:01, seventh, and junior TJ Sparno, 18:16, 10th. Rounding out the strong effort were seniors Bedros Maldjian, 18:17, AJ Villaruel, 18:22, and junior Russell Webb,19:28.

On Saturday, Oct. 2, the freshmen went to Darlington Park in Mahwah to participate in the Brett Taylor Invitational. They finished in first place in their 3,200-meter race with 18 points. The place-finishers were Carter Herman, 9:13, first place, Brendan Mathey, 9:28, second place, Matthew Oess, 9:36, fourth place, Chris Dolz-Carrino, 9:40, fifth place, and William Magaldi, 9:41, sixth place. Other runners in the race were Nick Lazzari, 9:57, eighth place, Gabriel Ramos, 10:07, 10th place, Michael Allen, 11:12, Malcolm McCloud, 11:47, Marcellus McCloud, 12:26, and Aidan Walters, 13:03.

The varsity team went to the New Balance Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park in Holmdel. The team finished in fifth place. Anthony Bottino ran 18:07, Connor Schmit,18:19, Danny Collum, 18:42, Ben Ferrara, 18:49, Bedros Maldjian, 18:54, TJ Sparno, 19:19, and Russell Webb, 19:54.

In the Brett Taylor JV race, the team finished in third place. Sophomore Evan Surmay ran 20:53, sophomore Brendan Blaesser, 20:56, sophomore Zach Pater, 21:01, junior Rob Lacki, 21:11, and sophomore Zach Figueira, 21:24.

In the New Balance Shore Conference JV race, the team finished in second place.Senior Brady Sheaffer ran 19:06, sophomore Ben Brennan, 20:07, sophomore John Dec, 20:17, junior Ryan Matulonis, 20:19, and junior Fritz Groppe, 20:19.