Mike Repice
by Jessica Snow
The Pennsylvania Athletic League
“We did really well, a lot of teams had a lot more girls than us. Some teams had up to 20 runners. We did it with much less,” senior Celena Blasucci said.
Blasucci and the women’s cross country team of six runners came in third at the PAC Championship race on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The meet was a culmination of a steady season for the team.
“We just improved each week,” Blasucci said.
All the weeks of improvement came down to a sunny, cool day at Alvernia College, nice weather for running according to Blasucci.
The team, Blasucci, senior Lauren Dean, junior Kristin Zielinski, sophomore Andrea Dragone and first-year student Dolores Edkins were not joined in the race by first-year runner Linsey Young because she was suffering from injuries as she has most of the season.
Dean finished the race first and each of the other women placed high in the final rankings.
The NCAA Division III National Race
After success at the PAC championship, Dean travelled to Spokane, Washington to represent Cabrini at the NCAA Division III National race on Nov. 18. She came in 86th place.
“It was incredible, the entire town was bouncing with cross country runner, you won’t find that around here,” Dean said.
The course, on the Wandermere Golf Course in Spokane, was two 1800 meter loops covered in snow.
“There weren’t a lot of hills, but there were a lot of turns and that is really hard,” Dean said.
She explained that at that level of competition many runners have the same average times at a course, so instances like slipping on a turn make or break the race. This is also dangerous because the runners are in such large groups as they push to the finish line.
Overall Dean was happy with her performance.
“I ran a good race. If I had a little more experience on that level i could have done better,” Dean, who’s goal before the race was to place in the top 100, said.
Dean had been waiting for this opportunity all season.
“PAC is fun, but even at regionals I was thinking `I am doing this for nationals,'” Dean said.
The future of the team
“Every race Celena and I would say, `This is the last time we are going to run here,'” Dean said.
Dean believes the team will carry on well without these seniors, however.
“There are good runners left on this team, with some recruiting they will continue to be successful,” Blasucci said.
