Seton Hall University
Metropolitan Championships
Ricci's Top-25 Finish Paces Hall at Mets
10/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
BRONX, N.Y. - For the fourth consecutive race, the Seton Hall men's cross country team maintained a presence inside the top-25 as junior Victor Ricci (Narragansett, R.I.) clocked his second team-leading time of the year; placing 23rd overall to pace a seventh-place effort for The Hall at the Metropolitan Championships.
The Pirates posted a team score of 198 points on the afternoon while hosts Fordham claimed the team title with 27 points.
Ricci, who previously finished ninth to headline a third-place showing for SHU at Delaware, needed just 27:31.4 to complete the five-mile course at Van Cortlandt Park. The junior picked up his third-straight scoring time with what doubled as the Pirates' 19th top-25 finish of the season.
Sophomore Louis Bustamante (Hamburg, N.J.) also cracked the 28-minute mark, crossing the line in 27:58.5 to take 40th among 114 finishers. Bustamante has emerged as a reliable scorer early in the campaign, cracking the team's top-five three times in four events.
Classmate Jeff Larson (Yucca Valley, Calif.) gave Seton Hall a trio of top-50 finishers as his time of 28:25.9 ranked 48th on the afternoon. Larson has now begun his second season in blue & white with four consecutive scoring times.
Junior Sean Kip (Union, N.J.) nearly added another top-50 time but his time of 21:38.6 (51st) was still good enough to stand fourth among Pirate competitors. With the result, Kip also extended his season-long scoring streak after placing second among the squad last time out at the Cappy Anderson Invitational.
Rounding out the scoring contingent was sophomore Jake Simon (Freehold, N.J.) who posted a 28:41.0 mark to take 57th-place overall. It was just the first finish outside the top-30 for Simon this season but gave the Freehold product a total of three scoring times this fall.
Junior Alex Mallue (Canton, Ohio) came in sixth for The Hall on the afternoon, registering a 29:03.7 mark that earned him a 69th-place finish.
The Seton Hall cross country program will be back in action next Sunday, October 18 when the Pirates travel to Queens for the St. John's Fall Cross country Festival.
