Junior Jazz Roberts was awarded as the PrestoSports SUNYAC Runner of the Week for the second time this season.
“It’s really cool, a confidence booster [being awarded the Runner of the Week]. I know my biggest competition this year in the SUNYAC is going to be Geneseo and so letting them know that I am in good shape is awesome,” Roberts said. “I feel I am going to be a good contender at the conference meet, and I want to put pressure on them.”
The men’s cross country team came in fourth out of eight teams, which included a total of 93 runners.
Andrew Horan finished ninth with the time of 27:09. on the eight-kilometer course. Junior Luke Groves and junior Arthur Horan came in 18th and 22nd with the time of 27:46.8 and 28:04, respectively.
The Cardinals scored 105 points with an average time of 28:24.7, 22 points ahead of Norwich University.
Due to a knee injury, Horan was unable to run as much for training, but he was glad that he was able to race last week. He said he had to cross-train for the past week and now he is slowly working his way back to training.
The women’s team did not have a complete team, so the Plattsburgh State was not included in the team standings.
Junior Jazz Roberts came in first out of 63 runners with the time of 22:37.3 for the six-kilometer course. She beat her opponent while there was still 300 meters to go, edging the second-place runner with 6.2 seconds.
Roberts said she was surprised by her performance and she screamed triumphantly at the end of the race.
She was excited about running her personal record last week and did not expect to win against Middlebury College’s team.
“I don’t like leading races, so I let her stay in front of me toward the end because I knew mentally if I was ahead, I will be like ‘she’s coming to get me,’ so I’d rather run her down,” Roberts said. “I just wanted to make the move big so that she would be deterred to come after me.”
Sophomore Aislyn McDonough and senior Mikayla Barrett clocked 36th and 46th place with the time of 27:50.8 and 29:34.0, respectively.
Head coach Andrew Krug said the team did fairly well for their first six-kilometer and eight-kilometer course as they ran a more challenging course in terms of rolling hills and climbs. He said the Cards’ course is flat and this meet brought a new element for the team, which will be beneficial.
“This was certainly a true cross country course and made it challenging, test fitness and test the mind as well,” Krug said.
Krug also said running in Middlebury is new to the team, so he made sure he checked out how the course was like before the team competed.
Having the week before off let the team rest up and focus on training, which helped the team overall for its first six-kilometer and eight-kilometer course. For the upcoming weeks, Plattsburgh State will have back-to-back meets and Krug said it is about recovery, resting and getting one good quality work out before competing for the same distance again.
Sophomore Kristen Thomas was not able to run for meets as she had a hip injury and she is going through icing and steaming now. She hopes that she will be able to race this week, but it will be depending on her condition.
“I still train and everything, it’s just that I have to back myself a little bit and hopefully it will get better by SUNYAC,” Thomas said.
Krug said the weather will be cooler than the last time they went to Williamstown, so he is looking to have a better racing temperature. He wants the team to be more comfortable with the distance, making sure that they get off the line at a good pace and improvements on the race strategies from last week.
Horan said for this week, he wants to have fun and try to stay with the top guy from St. Lawrence University as long as he can. He said the results are important but he runs because he enjoys it.
“Every race is going to be different, especially in cross country. Just ‘cause you can run fast here doesn’t mean this is the fast course, you just have to know who to be by,” Horan said.
