Cross country's growth sprint
Senior Julie Randolph takes second place at the O’Connell Invitational track meet at Cheshire Academy’s course on September 29.
In just one year, the Convent of the Sacred Heart cross country team has moved from placing seventh to third at the O’Connell invitational. Coach Brad Miller, Senior Captain Julie Randolph, and sophomore, Grace Kennedy, believe that the team’s immense improvement this fall season has much to do with the team’s larger size.
In fact, according to the Greenwich Post, over 75 percent of the team is new. Julie has been running since her sophomore year when the team only had seven members, and is now ecstatic to see the team grow in such a short period of time. Regardless of having a larger team, Julie believes the team will, “have the same familial atmosphere”.
Julie believes that the increase in size is the driving force to success this fall season. The positivity and motivation that surround the team make improvement seem like an easy task.
“We can only get better from here and we’re already looking really strong,” Julie said.
The increase of runners will enable the team to combat schools like Greenwich Academy, who have always had a lot of runners.
“In cross country terms, ‘deeper’ means that you have more runners and are therefore able to displace other teams’ runners, which causes them to have a larger score,” Julie said.
Coach Miller believes that improvement lies in the team’s pacing.
“It doesn’t seem like we have a lot of speed when it comes to finishing our workouts,” Coach Miller said in an interview with the Greenwich Post. “What we plan on working on is pacing.”
Sophomore Grace Kennedy is looking forward to the upcoming potential of the larger team. However, Grace is not worried that the family atmosphere will diminish.
“Everyone really clicked from the first day and we still feel like a family with a bunch of new members,” Grace said.
Grace is confident that the team will keep on improving and, like Julie, also believes that the team will pose a greater threat towards Greenwich Academy which is known to be the powerhouse in the Fairchester Athletic Association.
“I think that the whole team is super motivated and we put in all our effort to run our hearts out every day,” Grace said.
With many motivated veterans on the team, as well as the newcomers, the girls will indeed continue to run their fastest every day.
– Emily Hirshorn, Staff Writer
