Hughes cruises to finish; Seahawks sixth at Trinity

MANCHESTER, Conn. – Senior captain Sean Hughes (Old Saybrook, Conn.) mounted a furious finishing kick to place inside the top 20 and lead Salve Regina to a sixth-place finish in the Trinity Invitational.

Hughes picked up six places in the final, uphill stretch to place 16th in a time of 17:18. It was Hughes' fastest run on the grass-and-trail 5K course at Wickham Park since 2012, when he finished in 17:08.

Sophomore Andrew Sardelli (Hope Valley, R.I.) ran as the Seahawks' second man for the second week in a row, finishing 28th of 88 runners with a time of 17:49. Sardelli took a more measured approach to the opening mile and was consistent throughout the race, holding steady between 25th and 30th place.

Freshman Tyler Lancaster (Warwick, R.I.), sophomore David Napierkowski (Cheshire, Conn.) and junior captain Jay Brennan (North Haven, Conn.) rounded out the scoring five for Salve Regina, crossing the finish line at 18:47, 18:49 and 18:55. Junior Kevin Onofreo (Middlefield, Conn.) and sophomore Scott Brewer (Palmer, Mass.) ran at No. 6 and No. 7, finishing at 18:57 and 19:19.

"Sean and Andrew are really running well in the top spots, and they're getting better each week. I know they're eager to move up to the 8K distance next week," said head coach Rob McGuinness. "We needed guys to step up to fill out the rest of the lineup, and Tyler, Dave, Jay and Kevin answered the call."

Trinity College took four of the top 10 spots en route to winning the team title with a score of 41 points. Coast Guard was second with 57, Hartford was third with 59 and Connecticut College was fourth with 65. Trinity senior Patrick Hoagland won the individual title with a time of 16:36.

Other Salve Regina finishers included:

Senior Slater Roosa (Woodbury, Conn.) – 19:24
Junior Anthony Tandy (Hopedale, Mass.) – 19:37
Sophomore Collin Travassos (Barrington, R.I.) – 20:13
Sophomore Neil Sheehan (Methuen, Mass.) – 21:24
Junior Tyler Torelli (Ledyard, Conn.) – 21:37
Senior Daniel LaBrie (East Providence, R.I.) – 21:51

The Seahawks return to action on Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Corsair Invitational at the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth.

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Courtesy of Rob McGuinness