It was an eventful week for the Immaculata Cross Country team. We hosted Manville in a dual meet at Duke Island Park. We competed on the new course at Greystone Park for the first time. Yet the highlight of the week has to be how close we are to returning to 100% health. Captains Mike Paustian and Ali Wehrhahn, who were both forced to miss the first two meets of the year due to nagging injuries, returned to action on Tuesday at Duke Island Park to make their 2017 season debuts. Paustian cruised to his first victory of the season in the boys race with a time of 17:36 and Ali managed a second place finish in the girls race. While neither runner is close to satisfied with where they are at this point, they both realize there is plenty of time left in the season to return to peak form and that things will only get better from here. Now the last remaining hurdle for the Spartans is to get Carly Makowicz back to action, which should happen any day now as she is extremely close to returning from an Achilles injury. The team also welcomed a new member to the girls team, Mariella Rossi. Mariella is a transfer from Dubai and we are all thrilled to have her aboard.
Saturday at Greystone turned out to be another banner day for our sophomore boys. TJ Harkins led the way with a 4th place finish and Michael Blandino turned in a strong 17th place finish to earn medals. Blandino's time of 18:37 is a great mark of consistency for the young runner. His 5-second gap from his Randolph time (18:32) represents the closest spread of anyone on the team who ran in both races. A shoutout must also go to Giovanni DeSapio. He ran by far the guttiest and strongest race of his career at Greystone and he will turn into a key contributor for the team if he continues along this path.
The Spartans return to action this Wednesday, September 27, at Colonial Park and Saturday, September 30, back at Greystone Park.
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