Since the year 2000 the Keene State women’s cross country team has been dominating the Little East Conference (LEC). The women have just taken home their 17th consecutive title.
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Senior Lindsay Szuch won the individual medal honor. Her winning race time was 18:02:74, which was 32 seconds in front of the next runner. Szuch is now the latest Owls of the nine KSC runners to take home an individual medal honor.
Mary Proulx (2000, 2001), Jennifer Adams (2005, 2006, 2007), Breanne Lucey (2006), Rita Marcotte (2008), Allison Chamberlain (2009), Paige Mills (2010, 2011), Samantha Goldsmith (2013, 2014), and Kait Wheeler (2015).
With holding this tradition can bring some stress but that doesn’t stop the lady Owls. “It’s a huge amount of pressure continuing such a strong tradition of dominance in our conference but there also comes a huge sense of pride with it as well,” Szuch said.
She continued, “This year in particular meant a whole lot to my team as we really had to go out and fight for it this year, it wasn’t the given that we would take it as it seemed in the past. So for us to actually go out and earn this title meant so much, especially for our seniors.”
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Cross country is prominently endurance work. “We do a lot of long run tempos and fartlek training in the woods,” Szuch said. The runner’s mileage varies, but for Szuch she averages about 50-57 miles each week.
Now that they have reached post season, they will begin cutting back their longer runs for shorter, faster pace work.
Next up the cross country team has their Regionals meet at Westfield State in Mass. “This was the race that year, our women’s team qualified for the National race in Wisconsin. We have lost about six of those girls that went last year, but I still have high hopes this year of returning. It was a stretch last year that we would make it, but we did. So I don’t see the harm in setting that for a goal for this year as well,” Szuch said.
Shelby Iava cna be contacted at Siava@kscequinox.com
