On October 9, the Lady Hawks made their way to Cunningham Park to run in the third Grand Prix of the 2013 girls cross country season. They competed against runners from several public high schools in Queens.
Only the THHS freshman team participated in this meet. They ran the 1.5 mile event.
The starting gun went off and the girls left their coaches, teammates, and spectators in the dust. The weather was chillier than it had been during past meets, and some of them found this to be a hindrance. On the bright side, many of the girls said this course was easier than others.
“There are many little hills and you get pretty tired after running them,” freshman Joey Lin said. “The only other course I’ve ran at was Van Cortlandt and that has like one small hill, and then a huge hill after that, but I think Cunningham is easier because I ran this course more.”
The first girl to arrive at the finish line was freshman Noreen Mohsin. In addition to winning her first race, she set a new personal time record, completing the course in just eleven minutes and eighteen seconds.
“I was really proud of my run. I’ve simply never done so good at Cunningham before,” said Noreen. “It was a smooth run, I kept a good pace and it was a first for me.”
Her teammates were not far behind her. Freshman Brianna Manginelli finished third and also set a personal time record. Almost every THHS girl who ran in the event set a new personal record including freshmen Sasha Balkaran and Marina Aweeda, who placed sixth and seventh respectively.
Marina evaluated her performance saying, “It was personal progress because I improved my time and started off much stronger, and not because I was still struggling with stitches that caused me to run slower.”
“Our team did amazing today!” said Joey, who also set a personal record. “Noreen got first and our team is really close. I think we improved a lot from when we began cross country to now. Even though we are working really hard, there is always room for improvement.”
Last Sunday, the girls competed in the Mayor’s Cup at Van Cortlandt Park. Many members of the team were far from satisfied with their performance at that meet, causing Mr. Connor and the captains to address the team about commitment, taking care of themselves, and effort. With championship season being right around the corner, the girls found these things to be essential to their success.
“I know things have been very tense lately because we’re all just trying to work through the season and it’s hard to get by without negative thoughts,” said Noreen. “However, I feel that we need to think in terms of personal improvement, but also stick together through everything- not just victory, but loss too- and be a team.”
Brianna added, “A successful team requires dedication and a heart that yearns to be victorious; I believe that our girls have that. Sure, it may not be shown at every single moment, but I am positive that it is there and it will shine for the upcoming championship season!”
