Tom O’HoraWith their season underway, the cross country team has had a few meets thus far, and had mixed emotions with the overall results.
This past week the cross country team faced Muhlenberg and Cedar Crest, which was more of an individual competition. There were only three women able to run, and in order to place as a team in cross country there needs to be five runners on each team.
Junior exercise science major Carolyn Roberts placed 2nd out of 118 women Saturday, Sept. 17. Sophomore exercise science major Justin Walsh placed 13th out of 97 men, while sophomore accounting major Chris Sweeney placed 28th and junior business administration major Zach Furlong placed 54th.
“The men’s team is making progress,” coach Tom O’Hora said. “Walsh, Sweeney, and Furlong all have a good chance of making All Pennsylvania Athletic Conference this year.”
Freshman exercise science major Tony Gregory ran in the meet at Muhlenberg and Cedar Crest. “They needed five people to run and I was the fifth person,” Gregory said.
Senior English and communication major Michelle Phan gave some insight for the meet scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24 at Belmont Plateau. “The girls won’t score because there are only three runners, but the guys will do well.”
Both Phan and Gregory said they do cross country in order to get into shape for indoor track.
The team lost all but two runners from last season, so there is an extra challenge for them. They are short handed to begin with and injuries have really hurt the women’s team.
“There are several experienced good runners who are currently walking around the Cabrini campus who could really help both teams,” O’Hora said. “We still welcome them or any other people who want to find out what they’re made of; it still isn’t too late to help out.”
The cross country team practices together Monday through Saturday and on Sunday they are required to work out and lift on their own.
“Each week I make the workouts a little bit harder. Most other teams start out ahead of us and try to maintain. Our goal as a team is to peak at the PAC champs and surprise everyone,” O’Hora said.
With it still being fairly early in the season, there is a long way for the team to go until the PAC champs.
Both the men’s and women’s team has a rival they are striving to beat this season.
Marywood is the women’s team to beat. They won the PAC title last season.
The men are looking to beat Misericordia. If Misericordia wins the PAC title this year it will be their fifth straight league title.
“This will break the current record held by Misericordia and Cabrini of four straight,” O’Hora said. However, Cabrini will still hold the most PAC wins for both men and women.
The cross country team is scheduled to have a meet Saturday, Sept. 24 against 24 other teams. The meet will be at home at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park at 12:15pm.
“It is one of the toughest meets of the year,” O’Hora said. “It is all part of training and getting better every week. You can’t get better if you don’t run against the best.”
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