Red Raiders love Croton Pt. Park
Another fun day in the park
By Myles StryderDue to an incoming storm the Westchester County Championship meet got moved up to a Friday afternoon. Though this meant the freshmen races and one JV race had to be dropped, it also meant we finally had a chance to run in some perfect weather conditions. The team seized the opportunity to put up some of its best times of the season.
After bouncing around for the last several years, it looks like Croton Point Park will be the permanent home of Counties. It certainly is a good choice. A relatively fast course with one big hill, good sight lines for spectators and the scenic beauty of the Hudson River all combines for a fine location. We were the first ones to arrive today. Having the park all to ourselves we got to have a nice relaxed warm up and we also got to feel the anticipation of the start of the meet grow as each bus rolled up and teams jumped out.
The first race today was the boys JV race. For some, this would be the last race of the season, as only
the top 10 can move on to next week’s sectional meet. The boys headed to the line under cloudy skies and very cool temperatures. Not so great for standing around, but perfect for fast running. For freshmen Aaron and Jair Villa it was a graduation of sorts, and the PRs the two ran showed that they are going to be big contributors to the 2019 team. In fact Aarons’ time of 24:11 is fast enough to make him top 7 heading into next week. Jair was followed to the line by Joseph. Muhammad Hirji and Jonathon Thomas also finished out their seasons on high notes running their fastest times as well.
The clouds lightened up and so did the sky as the sun sank down to the west across the river. The starting line lit up with the colors of the uniforms glowing in the warm light as Jackie and Alyssa approached the line for their race. Today they had to run varsity and though they might not be ready to run at the front of the pack yet, they both PRd. Both ladies have grown tremendously this season with Alyssa taking almost 9 minutes off her time from Sunken Meadows.
The anticipation was peaking as the ladies were finishing and the boys varsity teams were approaching the line. The sun was lower now and the air was getting colder. The teams were striding, chanting and psyching themselves up for a championship race. This was cross country at its best. With a shot from the pistol, they were off. A stampede of runners thundered across the grass heading for the hills. Our boys were on today. Dennis stepped up and had his best race ever. Running 19:10 he puts himself at #5 on our all time list. Jason Atkins finally had his best race of the season. Captain Chris was right with
him in the final stretch pushing the sophomore to a 19:43. Edwin followed Chris with a PR 20:15, leaving us all to wonder what might have been if he had not turned that ankle at the Gressler Meet. Brennan was #5 finishing four seconds behind Edwin with another PR. Tyler and Savallya also ran personal bests as they rounded out the squad for Hamilton.
The first race today was the boys JV race. For some, this would be the last race of the season, as only
 |
| Our JV |
The clouds lightened up and so did the sky as the sun sank down to the west across the river. The starting line lit up with the colors of the uniforms glowing in the warm light as Jackie and Alyssa approached the line for their race. Today they had to run varsity and though they might not be ready to run at the front of the pack yet, they both PRd. Both ladies have grown tremendously this season with Alyssa taking almost 9 minutes off her time from Sunken Meadows.
The anticipation was peaking as the ladies were finishing and the boys varsity teams were approaching the line. The sun was lower now and the air was getting colder. The teams were striding, chanting and psyching themselves up for a championship race. This was cross country at its best. With a shot from the pistol, they were off. A stampede of runners thundered across the grass heading for the hills. Our boys were on today. Dennis stepped up and had his best race ever. Running 19:10 he puts himself at #5 on our all time list. Jason Atkins finally had his best race of the season. Captain Chris was right with
 |
| Tyler and Savallya high above the Hudson |
It was a tired, but happy team the climbed on the bus as the sun set over the Hudson. One more week of work before our return to Bowdoin and a date with Haldane.
