Cross Country competes in first post-pandemic meet
By Robert Dungan, Junior Photo Editor
In Utica, NY, the Hudson Valley Community College men’s and women’s cross country program competed in the SUNY Poly Short Course Invitational on Saturday, September 4th. The meet marks the first time the program has competed since before the COVID-19 pandemic in the Fall of 2019.
When asked about the journey back to competition, Head Coach Popovics tells the Hudsonian, “The expectations were to finish strong and to have fun. The atmosphere on the way to the meet was enthusiastic and exciting. The preparation was very complex; many more steps were needed to be taken for student-athletes to become eligible due to COVID. Many of the athletes have not been able to compete for a couple of years and were a little apprehensive about racing again. However, keeping an open mind and setting goals for the first meet at SUNY Poly, the team was able to begin on a very high note.”
Two women Vikings finished in the top 40 in the 4,000-meter course. The top runner was Olivia Skylstad, who placed 32nd overall with an official time of 21:00. Jessica Wank posted a final time of 22:17 also finishing inside the top-40.
The men’s program concluded the event with the running of the 6,000-meter course (3.72 miles). Hudson Valley’s top runner was Shazim Permaul, who placed 9th overall with a final time of 20:31. Trevor Dzikowicz placed inside the top-20 with an official time of 21:47.
1st-year assistant coach Kirsten McMichael tells us, “The most challenging thing was how long we had to wait to be able to formally practice together as a team. The athletes had to train on their own until the week leading up to the meet, but are now very excited and more appreciative of having the chance to now train together.”
McMichael continued, “Since this was our first meet back we decided to use it as a time trial to get an idea of where everyone’s fitness level was. The athletes were very excited to get on a cross-country course. Everyone took the first mile out a little hard so we will be working on pacing as we head into the next races, but their times indicated that HVCC is going to be one of the teams to beat this season.”
McMichael commented that “We have a young team this year with only one returner, however despite being new to HVCC, our athletes are very talented and are in the position to do big things this season.” Popovics has a similar sentiment “All of the athletes are extremely talented and hard-working.”
The Cross-Country squad is next competing on September 11th at the SUNY Cobleskill Steven A. Warde Invitational. Pick up a copy of the Hudsonian for results and recap.