With fall meets starting soon, the athletes on the Townsend Harris Cross Country teams have set new goals for the fall season.
Girls Cross Country runner, senior and captain Abigail Schwartz, looks forward to bonding further with her team and hopes to “get first place at the Queens borough championships.” In order to accomplish this goal, Abigail said that it needs to be a team effort, “the whole team is just going to work very hard at every practice pushing ourselves,” ensuring that the team performs their best at meets.
Similarly, junior Hudson Wang of the Boys Cross Country team, notes that Cross Country is a “very team-reliant sport being that everyone matters in a race.” Hudson said he is delighted to be able to train and bond with the team since there were “limited opportunities during the summer.” Hudson said he believes the key to improving individually and as a team takes effort, “whether that be by pushing ourselves to our limits or just in general getting to know each other better, the effort put in is what matters in the end.”
Senior Danica Torres is confident that if she pushes her limits this season she can surpass her last season’s times. Danica said, “I know that I’m able to do more than survive the practices and I want to beat my times from last year, even if it’s by a couple seconds.” Danica plans to push herself and not give up during races “even when the hills seem endless.” Danica said she believes she can accomplish this goal with a change of mindset, she said “building confidence changes a lot.”
Senior and captain Emma Cheng has high hopes for her team this Cross Country season. Emma said that the team’s main goal is “to qualify for state championships by placing top four in PSAL city championships.” Emma said she knows that this isn’t going to be an easy task due to “the difficulty of [their] competition this year.” However, she said “[their] summer training and hard work will pay off, especially if [they’re] pushing each other to run [their] personal bests.” Emma said she is looking forward to racing new courses since they are “attending a lot of non-PSAL invitationals.”
Junior Xavier Murphy said that the Boys Cross Country team hopes to get faster. “[This] will take time but will happen with consistent training,” he said. Like many of his other team members, Xavier said he looks forward to improving his times and bonding more with his coaches and teammates.
Senior Sara Tustin said that she is confident her team will accomplish great things this season. Reflecting on last season Sara said, “Everyone trained super hard last year and hit some amazing times.” With this in mind Sara said, “I have no doubt that I’ll see even further improvement and the maximization of everyone’s potential.”
Sara said she hopes that her “summer training paid off” and she is able to beat her personal 5k record.
Junior and captain Alex Yauri said he is looking forward to “recruiting new members and training for [their] championship once more.” Alex reflects on the sentiments of being a part of a team, he said, “despite it being a competition, we’re all striving to reach the same finish line. Working hard and staying motivated will help not only one person but the entire team succeed.”
