Seton Hall University - Galleon Yearbook (South Orange, NJ)

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by Jeff IS a vin “Rebuilding year’’ is a classic cliche in sporting circles. Some teams go through those years for decades, for others, those seasons are bridges between winning years. For coach John Moon and the Pirate track team, the 1982-83 season was an example of the latter. Last fall, Moon was faced with the task of filling the shoes of departed Derrick Peynado, Brian Denman, Brian Jennings and Anselm LeBourne. His major concerns were the mile and two-mile relays. The sprint events were covered by the talents of Tommy Nnakwe, freshmen Ron Singletary, Leroy Cooke and Baron Chamberlis. Middle distances would be run by Akanni Moustapha, Robert Osborne and Felix Kadiri. Two members of last year’s mile relay team, Washington Njiri and Linval Francis, returned for another season, but Moon didn’t know who the other two would be. “The competition for the mile relay is wide open,” said Moon in the preseason. “Each practice changes things, so I plan to let the athletes select themselves by their performances. I’m baffled, but I’ll let the

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Illlllllll Pirates Save First Win For Last As Moon Rebuilds Winning Ways 182

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Bubble Collapse Hampers Training For ‘Vagabonds’ meets determine who runs.” The season opened with the Seton Hall Games, which were held in the Bubble. Next came a meet at the University of Connecticut. In that meet, Anthony Philip won the triple jump with a leap of 47-9; Njiri won the 500-meters in 1:05.1. Linton Williams won the 400 in 50.6 and Moustapha won the 800 with a time of 1:58.7. Otherwise, the CiConn Huskies won the field events and the mile relay to win the meet. Against West Point, the highlight of the meet was a seven foot high jump by Rashid Ramiz, only the second time that has been done in Seton Hall’s track history. The effort was only good for a second place, as the Pirates lost to Army, New York Tech and C.W. Post. Things began to work themselves out by the time the New Jersey Athletic Congress Indoor Track and Field Championships were held at Princeton. In that meet, the Pirates finished second after some impressive performances. Cooke won the 440 with a time of 49.6. He then ran the opening leg of the mile relay which won with a time of 3:17.8. The other members of the relay were Njiri, Moustapha and Bob Osborne. The same team won the relay in the meet at West Point in 3:14.9. In the championships, Ahmed Ismael, a distance runner from Somalia, set a Seton Hall record by running the three-mile run in 13:57.7. In the Millrose Games, the relay team registered a victory in the second flight and a third place overall. In the Princeton Relays, the team was disqualified when Francis was forced off the track by a runner from Villanova. At the Metropolitan Championship, Njiri won the 500-meters in 1:02.47, which qualified him for the NCAA Championship. The mile relay team of Michell Blanks, Njiri, Franci and Osborne qualified for the NCAAs two days earlier at the Boston Invitational with a time of 3:10.8. 184