STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The Seahawks open the 2026 slate at Holmdel Park, opening their season at Stevens' Back to the Bowl meet.
Looking ahead to a regular season slate of six meets, Wagner competes four times in New York, once in New Jersey and once in Pennsylvania, entering the postseason at the NEC Championships on Saturday, Oct. 31 then capping it off with the NCAA Regional Championships on Nov. 13 at Bethpage State Park.
On the roster for 2026, the Seahawks will bring back five of their 11 student-athletes from last season. Wagner enters its second season under head coach Marvin Azor, finishing off the 2025 season with a fifth-place finish for the men at the NEC Championships. Three student-athletes went on to represent the Seahawks at the NCAA Regional Championships.
The Schedule
It will be a familiar opener for the Seahawks this season, with the team returning to its opening meet from 2025. The Stevens Institute of Technology is hosting its second consecutive Back to the Bowl meet, kicking off the season on Saturday, Sept. 12 at Holmdel Park in Holmdel, New Jersey.
From there, Wagner competes in the LIU Fall Festival for the first time since 2023. No one on the 2026 roster competed in that meet. Held on Friday, Sept. 18 at LIU's Post campus in Brookville, New York, this meet will serve as solid preparation for the conference championships, which are set for the same course at the end of October.
Lehigh's Paul Short Run is third on Wagner's schedule, to be held on Friday, Oct. 2 on the Mountain Hawks' Goodman Course. This is the nation's largest intercollegiate cross country race.
The 117th annual IC4A and 43rd ECAC Cross Country Championships will take place Saturday, Oct. 17 at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. Set as an 8K course each year, Solomon finished 23rd for the Seahawks at the 2025 meet with a 24:43.4 time. Marquez and junior Ignacio San Juan also competed last season.
Returning to Brookville on October 31, the Seahawks will compete at the NEC Championships that Saturday at LIU's Post campus. The team looks to build on a fifth-place finish that had them just three points off fourth place, scoring 143 team points in 2025.
The postseason will continue in Farmingdale, New York at the NCAA's Regional Championships on Friday, Nov. 13 at Bethpage State Park. The meet will be hosted by Hofstra, one of nine regional sites for DI competition. Last season, Solomon represented the Seahawks at the event.
The NCAA's DI championships will then be held in Terre Haute, Indiana at Indiana State's LaVern Gibson Championship Course on Saturday, Nov. 21.
The Roster
Azor returns five student-athletes from its 2025 roster — senior Nigel Boboli, senior Eric Marquez, junior Joseph Perazzo, sophomore Ignacio San Juan and senior Joel Solomon.
Solomon and Marquez will bring the most experience from last season, participating in five meets apiece. Perazzo saw action at the start of the season, competing in Back to the Bowl to open the season, while San Juan ran at the NEC Championship, IC4A/ECAC Championship and the Paul Short Run.
Four freshmen join the squad, with three staying on Staten Island to continue their cross country career.
Two transfers arrived on Grymes Hill for 2026, with junior Shaun Ray and senior Caleb Harman rounding out Azor's roster. Harman, competing at Niagara for his first three seasons, ran at the NCAA Northeast Regional last season, logging a 35:20.4 time in the 10K.
Back to the Bowl
In its second year hosting the event, Stevens will welcome the Seahawks to the 2026 Back to the Bowl meet to open 2026. Held on Saturday, Sept. 12, the men will compete in a 5K at Holmdel Park in Holmdel, New Jersey.
The park has hosted New Jersey's high school state championship races since 1976, a familiar course to a number of Wagner athletes over the years. With both teams competing on the 5K course, the Seahawks will face a significant uphill climb in the first two miles then head downhill for the final mile.
In last season's 5K, the men's team took second place with 50 team points behind a first-place finish from graduate Florian Hinry. Then-junior Solomon logged a 16:50.90 time to finish fourth, with Wagner also returning Marquez and Perazzo as another pair on this season's roster who have experience at Holmdel Park.
