The St. Anthony’s girls’ cross country team ran an unusual race on Saturday, September 23rd, 2017.
Instead of pounding the trails at their home sites—Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park and Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx—the team traveled to East Greenwich, Rhode Island to run at Goddard Memorial State Park. As part of the 2017 Ocean State Invitational, varsity and junior varsity runners competed in the 5000-meter race, while freshmen ran the 2.5 mile race. The girls faced a wide and varied opposition: teams from ten different states attended the meet.
For the Friars, Ocean State was remarkable for more than just its location. The St. Anthony’s varsity team was boosted by two newcomers: ninth-graders Áine Mannion and Kelly Parker, whose speed qualified them to move up from the freshman team. Parker said that she was “excited” to run varsity, while Mannion summed up her feelings with another word: “nervous.”
The 5000-meter course wound around a field, through the woods, and then to the finish line. This course is a favorite of many runners because it is mostly flat, which means the race turns out some fast times. However, the St. Anthony’s girls were thrown for a loop when they discovered that the course had been modified since they had last run at Goddard Park. The 5000-meter runners were not expecting to face a steep hill in the last half mile of the race.
“It was a bit of a shock to get to Rhode Island and find out the course we have been running the last three years had been changed,” said senior Meghan Hund, captain of the varsity team. “The hill at the 2.5 mile mark definitely slowed our times down, because the old course was all flat.”
When the last runners had crossed the finish line, meet officials processed the results. St. Anthony’s varsity team earned 13th place, while the junior varsity team came in 15th and the freshmen came in 7th. The top athlete for the Friars was junior Jennifer Furman, who finished the 5000 meters with a time of 21:13 and an individual placement of 46th. Right behind her was sophomore Larisa Dorrian, who ran a 21:19 and finished in 54th.
When asked how she felt about the outcome of the meet, Dorrian praised her teammates but pointed out that there is always room for improvement.
“Personally, I felt that I could have done better,” said Dorrian. “I wasn’t feeling that great, but I had so much energy left at the end of the race. As a team, I think we all tried our best, but we can all give a little more.”
About The Author:
 |
Danielle D’Alonzo Danielle has run cross country and track since freshman year. She reads the sports section every day and also writes for school newspaper, The Paduan. Danielle is also a member of NHS, Math Honor Society and English Honor Society. |
