Women's cross country team endures tough practices to make winning season

By Matthew Anderson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

The Norwich Women's Cross Country team is in the hunt for the Greater Northeast Athletic Conference championship this fall with a full roster of strong runners.

The women's cross-country team puts in many hours of training a day over the summer to prepare themselves for the season ahead of them.

A collegiate women's cross-country course is 3.1 miles long, and good physical shape is required to be able to run at a competitive pace.

"Training at home in Texas isn't as effective if I had trained up here, but I feel like I am in decent shape," said Katie Serafine, an 18-year-old freshman psychology major from San Antonio, Tex.

Training hard over the summer is important to prepare the runners for a rigorous five-day practice schedule followed by a meet on Saturdays.

"I started out the season slow, but I am where I want to be now at this point of the season," said team captain Tabrina Karish, a 20-year-old, junior architecture major from Bethel, Penn.

This year's team has a full seven-member roster, including three freshman runners who are considered the top three on the team. Team captain Amanda Cookson, a 20-year-old junior sports medicine major from Kittery, ME., has high expectations for the season.

"We have a strong team and a good shot at winning the GNAC championship," Cookson said.

The women's team is off to a good start considering their competition.

"Lately we have been running against the top Division III schools along with some Division II schools," Cookson said. "So I haven't been doing too good place-wise, but my times have been good."

The key to the team's success will be in staying injury free. The team has had some problems with injuries but has been able to bounce back successfully.

Norwich women's cross-country has competed in four meets so far this year.

In Norwich's first meet on Sept. 7, 2002, at Saint Michael's College, Norwich placed eighth out of eight teams that competed in the meet.

In their second meet of the year Norwich ran at Middlebury College on Sept. 14, 2002, and took fifth out of seven.

Their third meet of the year was at Lyndon State, where Norwich took third of three teams that competed. In their fourth meet on Sept. 28 at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, they placed eleventh of thirteen.

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