The boys raced Glen Ridge and Weequanic in its first meet on Sept. 8, at Branch Brook Park in Newark, then competed at the Brookdale Invitational last Saturday, in Bloomfield.

The Bucs were back in action on Sept. 13, at Branch Brook Park for another Super Essex Conference competition and will return to Branch Brook for a 4 p.m. conference match on Sept. 20.

At the Brookdale Invitational, Dan Castano, the team's senior captain, paced the Bucs with a time of 20:31 on the fast course. Mayck Calle ran 20:49 and Chad Manning, a freshman, finished in 21:54. Other runners for the Bucs included Arik Odre (22:01), Sal Petrozzino (23:44), Joshua Uceta (25:05) and Joseph Rivera (25:35).

Faraz Chowdhury (11:35) and Julian Roca (12:21) ran in the freshman/novice 1.5 mile run at Brookdale.

Belleville split its season opening race, defeating Weequahic, 39-50 while falling to Glen Ridge, 17-39.

Castano was the first Belleville runner to cross the finish line, running 21:52.4. Wady Then, a sophomore, was next across in 21:53.5 and Calle finished in 22:07.3. Manning (22:39.4), Petrozzino (23:36), Odre (24:04.5) and Uceta (25:59.1) rounded out a good effort.

"I thought we showed a lot of improvement between Thursday and last Saturday," said head coach Nick Campione. "The heat was a factor on Thursday."