Since day one, Coach has continuously reminded us that in order to defend our title, we’ll have to be willing to do the little things that will ultimately get each one of us to running our best races. After a long & exhausting week long preseason full of an extensive amount of miles on our feet, Coach told us we had just survived the toughest preseason in all of his years coaching here. All of the sweat, long runs every day after 8-hour work days & hard training all summer, I personally felt confident it was going to be a successful season.
Running for a 10-time Conference winning program is somewhat intimidating, and puts a feeling of pressure on each one of us, as we all want to continue the success of the program and proud fully keep the title here at RWU. Graduating around 5 scorers from last season, I think everyone was unsure who would be stepping up to fill the big shoes that left. Returning this year are senior captains Sam Buechner, Michelle Needham and Leah Sayer, as well as valuable members Lauren Ashby, Katie Crowley, Nina Groseclose, Katie O’Koren, Lauren Riccardi, Katie Wilson and All-TCCC top runner Lily Rutler. 7 New Runners: juniors myself (Jess Kraiza) & Alex Honkala, sophomore Marissa Jambor, and freshman Vanessa Camiolo, Annie Cassidy, Kristen St. Pierre, and Hailey Wolfe.
Meet #1: Bryant University Invitational. To sum it up: day of Hurricane Earl Warnings, competing after the men’s race in the pouring rain, on what’s known to be a “hilly” course against all Division 1 teams. New to Cross Country, it was my first collegiate race ever, and weighing in all the factors of the day, I was beyond nervous (I know Alex & all the freshmen were too!). Coach prepared us well, and I’d say we showed some of the Division One runners what RWU was all about. Out of the 55 runners, Lily had a strong first performance placing 18th with 21:14, alongside an impressive first performance from our freshman Kristen St. Pierre (25th) & Vanessa Camiolo (28th). Happy with my first performance, I came in next placing 30th. Rounding out the top 7 on the day, Lauren Ashby ( 34th), Sam Beuchner ( 27th),and Alex Honkala ( 38th).
Meet #2 Roger Williams Invitational. Previously winning our home meet last year, we weren’t completely satisfied with our 3rd place finish out of 7 teams, as Coach instilled in our minds that we should look to perform better on a personal level in each meet looking back to our last season. On a positive note, every girl on the team improved their times from Bryant, which is promising looking to the future. Top 7 runners of the day: leading the way Lily, who placed 7th out of 87 runners finished in 20:04, followed by Vanessa (14th), Kristen (17th), Alex (18th), myself ( 20th), Katie O’Koren (28th), and Lauren Ashby (31st).
Meet #3 UMass-Dartmouth Invitational. Continuing to improve, we had some great times on Dartmouth’s 5k, faster paced course. At the starting line there were 290 runners in the varsity race, all taking off at the same time. At the shot of the gun, a stampede took off full of extremely aggressive girls fighting for the front of the pack. Racing strong and setting an RWU time record & named TCCC Runner of the Week two times this season, Lily Rutler placed 33rd with an outstanding time of 19:17. Following with personal best records this season, Vanessa 73rd almost breaking sub-20 with 20:03, Alex placing 115th at 20:36, myself in 126th at 20:44, and Sam finishing up the scoring for our team, placing 131 with a time of 20:51. Also, Katie Crowley had an all-time personal best in the sub-varsity race with a 20:30 race time! Everyone yet again has continued to improve their times since the first race. I really think if we keep it up, and continue to practice hard, we will have another shot to win conference.
We have this next weekend off & the following weekend at Gordon. The next two weeks full of long runs (Coach mentioned around 10 miles Sunday morning practice!!) and speed workouts will be tough, but in the long run looking toward our season goals, will be worth it. We have a great, supportive group of girls, who have a lot of talent, hawk pride, and heart. I definitely think we can do this.
-Jess Kraiza
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