Hudson Valley Hosts Regional Cross Country Meet
Athletics Director Kristan Pelletier explained that “the conference rotates sites on an annual basis” between the different campuses of the Mountain Valley Conference. In addition to being the first Conference Championships Hudson Valley has hosted, it was also the college’s first time hosting a cross country meet.
To prepare for the meet, Pelletier and Assistant Athletic Director Justin Hoyt had to design and create the course. Pelletier said they designed the course “utilizing campus maps and an app through our iPad” and it cost approximately $890 to create.
Pelletier said that Hudson Valley’s race course was unique in relation to cross country courses at other colleges because it has “a very urban setting versus the more traditional rural campuses that utilize a golf course or acres of grass.”
“All of the institutions in the Mountain Valley Conference who field a men’s and/or women’s cross country program were invited to the meet on the 18th,” said Pelletier. They include, in addition to Hudson Valley’s men’s and women’s teams, SUNY Delhi, Mohawk Valley Community College, Herkimer County Community College and Columbia-Greene Community College.
The interim head coach of Hudson Valley’s cross country team Sarah Popovics said that one of the highlights of the season was “Hudson Valley hosting their first conference meet,” explaining that the team was looking forward to it because the runners had “never run this course [before].”
Popovics says that this year the team has been doing “really well.” She explained that “a lot of [the runners] have been improving by minutes.”
The leading runners have been sophomore Rosalie Osberg for the women’s team, and freshmen Dante Carr and Devin McGuirk for the men’s.
The meet started at 1 p.m. with the women’s teams running a 5K course. Herkimer County Community College’s Victoria Campanian came in first place with a time of 18:03. Rosalie Osberg, environmental science major, finished first for the Hudson Valley girls’ team and ninth overall for the women’s race with a time of 20:48. Business administration major Heather Bryce finished with a time of 23:00 and forensic science major Ashley Stewart with the time of 25:25.
Speaking about the difficulty of the course, Osberg said, “It had a long gradual hill and a short steeper hill, [but was otherwise] pretty flat,” adding that it “wasn’t a bad course.”
The men’s four-mile race, accompanied by a brief rain shower, followed the end of the women’s race at 2 p.m.
Barrett Celecki from Mohawk Valley Community College finished first with a time of 20:58. Dante Carr, electrical engineering major, finished first for Hudson Valley and fifteenth for the men’s race with the time of 23:21. He was followed closely by Devin McGuirk, physical education major, at 23:29 and in eighteenth place. Entrepreneurship major Ryan Kohlenberger had a time of 25:32, and individual studies major Marcelo Amorim Arante had a time of 28:51.
Both Osberg and Carr seemed satisfied with their performances in the race. Carr added with a shrug, “I thought the finish line was closer so I kicked too late.”
Carr thought that the wet weather contributed to the difficulty of the race, saying, “The course was actually really rough. Half was muddy, half was road, so running with the spikes on was tough.”
For both the women’s and men’s teams in the overall results for the races Mohawk Valley Community College came in first place, SUNY Delhi in second, and Herkimer County Community College third.
In the past, Hudson Valley’s cross country men’s and women’s teams have had difficulty in gathering enough people for full five-person squads. This year was no different, and both the women’s and men’s teams had to forgo being counted in the final team results due to having incomplete squads.
This Conference Championship was the last seasonal meet for Hudson Valley’s cross country team, but Popovics is already looking positively to the future of both the team and the cross country program of Hudson Valley.
She explained how this year the team received “a lot of new people, a lot of freshmen,” and added that she was “excited for next year.” She said that she was going to continue to recruit students for the team and to “try to get a full squad.”
She finished with a smile, saying, “I’m confident that we will.”