Christendom Cross Country: A Team On The Rise

Last Fall, 2017, our distance runners finished their second full schedule season, competing against both local colleges and out of state schools. They ran against larger schools in the Virginia area that are under the NCAA D2 or D3 level, as well as a few smaller teams, closer to the size of Christendom, that belonged to the USCAA as we do. It was an exciting and challenging year because the majority of the 2016-17 team graduated. Returning were only two veterans, The Men's Captain Sophomore Tommy Herlihy, and Women's Captain Junior Emily Farabaugh. They had a clean slate and many raw recruits to develop in a very short period of time. The student athletes responded in Christendom fashion by rising to the task at hand with strength of heart and mind, never backing away from the long miles, hill workouts, trail runs by the Shenandoah River, and speed work at any local track they could find. The mileage Coach Stanislaw has the ream on is relatively low compared to other colleges, conservatively running 25-35 miles per week compared to most colleges, who utilize 50+ miles per week for training. Coach Stanislaw focused on having them run quality miles rather than quantity miles.

Our young team of harriers gained valuable experience at meets such as the one hosted by Bridgewater College, where the girls defeated Sweetbriar College; the large Shenandoah University meetthat hosted more than 13 colleges and universities. In that meet the Men defeated Hagerstown C.C and Gallaudet, while the women placed ahead of several teams: Mary Baldwin Univ., Gallaudet, and Baltimore City C.C. The best showing from both teams was at the season finale at the Frostburg Invite in Frostburg, MD. The Men placed 4th overall of 8 teams, defeating Alleghany College, Marymount,Westmoreland County C.C. and Baltimore City C.C. The Women at Frostburg placed 5th of 8 teams taking victories over Westmoreland, Mount Aloysius College, and Baltimore City respectively.

For the less experienced runners, we attended a few 5K Road Races for a community challenge, and always came home with most of the bling and age group awards! The program runs 4 to 5 days a week, with occasional long runs on Fridays or Saturdays. Competing in 5 to 6 Invitational Meets, August through October, with the potential of competing in November at the National level in the USCAA Championship if we qualify with set goal times for the team or individual, as our Women's team did in its inaugural 2016 year, placing 12th at Nationals on the USCAA Virginia Beach course!

In order to promote the sport of distance running, Coach Stanislaw has initiated a spring Running Club, open to all comers. This means you can join even if you do not necessarily want to run for the team next year. The club meets Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:00 pm near the gym. It is open to all students who want to use distance running as a form of stress relief, conditioning or even to prepare for your first race or the cross country team! If you are interested, contact Coach Stanislaw at xcountry@christendom.edu, or Patrick Quest, the A.D., at patrick.quest@christendom.edu.