On September 11, Irvington’s cross country team participated in their first meet marking the start of the cross country season, The team competed against eight other teams in races that went as long as three miles and placed fifth overall with a total score of 138 points. The team had multiple standouts in the top 10 for their group; such as Dylan Kwok for JV Boys, Audrey Vilaivan for Varsity Girls, and Aashish Rajakumar(11) for Varsity Boys. Although the team performed well, they were facing some challenges due to some members being injured the whole preseason, or other runners getting sick and not being able to do their best.
Although the team did not perform as expected, they are focused on improving their times. “Just looking for everyone to hit their records. A big thing for cross country is to try to improve [the students] time and just raise quality”, said cross country coach Mrs. Tebow. The team also plans on reducing the number of injuries to the racers to make sure the team is always ready for a meet. Team Captain Reily Akana (11) says, “I was injured the whole year during the summer, and my goal is to get back where I was last year but keep a more balanced training style.”
Despite the team’s rocky start with many students not being able to perform well due to sicknesses, the team perseveres and spends long hours training for meets to improve as the season progresses. “We usually work out four times a week for an hour and a half, 2 hours for competitive racers,” Mrs. Tebow explained.
Along with the commitments of track, team members have to balance being on the team with their other priorities in and outside school. “I love working, and I love seeing people reaching their goals…Just people realize it’s a lot working on weekends at least three to four hours on the weekend,” added Mrs. Tebow. Riley also reflected, “I try to keep cross country being part of my position as captain a priority along with schoolwork and stuff just because I know there’s a lot of people relying on me for team bondings and other dates”.
Besides racing, the track team also maintains a strong bond with each other during the season and the remainder of the school year. When asked about the team’s biggest strengths, Reily replied, “We are all really close friends outside of practice and always have a good time and work together. So it’s just a great community to be around and everyone has just a great time”.
Although the team is small this year, the team is ecstatic to start the new season and is only working towards improving from the first meet. Mrs. Tebow reiterated, “The goal is to stay injury-free. And, you know, just keep competing and seeing those prs”. The cross country team might not be at their ideal starting spot, but they are ready to compete and improve from their races. You can go see the team compete at their next meet on October 2nd at Quarry Lakes Regional Park.
