The cross country team began the season with consistent improvements during its first three meets at Lynbrook, Central Park and Crystal Springs on Sept. 9, Sept. 23 and Oct. 2, respectively, as well as the annual Saratoga tri-meet at home against Prospect and Lynbrook on Oct. 7.
Senior Steven Sum placed first in all four meets, and seniors Andrew Harter, Valerie Lensch, Carolyn Qi and Christine Schlossareck and juniors Kimberly Chen and Stephen Law have also been consistently contributing points to the team with their high scores. Freshmen Allison Borch, Amit Nag and Lillian Zeng have also placed high during meets.
“We’ve definitely came out strong after a good summer, but we feel we can be better,” said senior co-captain Rohith Krishna. “CCS is in November, so we’re just trying to improve slowly until then and do our best there.”
Daily training, including interval workouts, weight training and long distance runs have helped the runners improve their skills and stamina.
“Last year we used to [take some easy days], but this year we’re just powering through everything,” Krishna said. “The mileage is going up, the workouts are harder, and we’re just trying to be aggressive with our training.”
Newcomers to the team have felt the intense training to be beneficial. Nag finds high school level practices much more competitive than those in middle school.
“I think I’ve improved more because we practice every day and [the team is] more organized,” Nag said. “[Lifting] weights builds muscle and interval workouts help [us] gain stamina, and I’ve imagined the meets as a hard workout rather than a competition.”
Borch found that she had to focus on herself and her personal goals in order to effectively improve.
“I think the best help for improving is to push yourself because it creates mental toughness and the ability to ignore the pain and thoughts of, ‘I’m tired,’” said Borch.
Through intense training, the runners have become closer to each other as a team.
“There’s been a lot more bonding between us on runs and much more humor,” Krishna said. “We have a singing thing going on where we sing while we’re running.”
Overall, the team has seen dramatic improvements in times from that of previous years.
“Seeing where we were last year compared to where we are this year, it’s almost like [we are] just completely different people running,” Krishna said.
