This Saturday the men’s and women’s cross country teams are set to begin postseason competition at the NEWMAC championships. The men’s team will run eight kilometers while the women’s team will run six kilometers. Both teams have been competitive this year, finishing in the top half in four out of five meets.
The men’s and women’s teams are coached by Anna Steinman, who is in her 10th season with Springfield. Steinman has coached many runners for the Pride, but noticed that this year’s team is different. The men’s team doesn’t have a front runner, but a strong pack. For the women’s team, Kristina Kyle has led the squad with multiple top-30 finishes.
“This team is kind of a continuation of last year where both the men’s and women’s teams are a good cohesive unit,” Steinman said. “They’re really supportive of each other. They help push and compete with each other in a positive way and they all want each other to get better. Overall the vibe and atmosphere has been so positive and refreshing that it’s really helping with the overall performances.”
NEWMACs have been on the team’s minds since the end of the outdoor track season, with the team running through the summer to build up mileage. When Springfield got back for preseason, its mindset became stronger. Upperclassmen on the team have been leading the way for the Pride.
“On the women’s team we have seven seniors so they’ve been through this quite a bit,” Steinman said. “They’ve been vocal about making sure people are doing what they need to do outside of practice to make sure they’re eating while recovering and sleeping well and showing up to practice with a good attitude.”
Meanwhile, the men’s team only has one senior and one junior – Jeremiah Singer and Harry Yablon, respectively.
“Those two guys have really been able to step up and lead this year and help develop leaders amongst the freshman and sophomore class,” Steinman said. “It’s an overall collective group of leaders on the men’s side to get each other feeling confident and ready to race every single weekend and also proving that they can do hard things and workouts too.”
The NEWMAC championships will be taking place at Highland Park in Attleboro, Mass. Highland Park is familiar terrain for Springfield, as the team’s first meet this season was held there. The course was shorter in the Pride’s first meet, with the men’s team only running a 5k while the women’s team ran a 3k.
It’s not a coincidence that Springfield will start postseason play where their season started. Since becoming the head coach of the team, Steinman has always scheduled the first or second meet to be at the location of the NEWMAC championships.
“We try to find an early season meet that has a meet there so they can get familiar with the course,” Steinman said. “This course is pretty much just loops of the same thing like two to three times, so they should be familiar with it. All the other courses of the meets I’ve been trying to go to this year have been very similar to that aspect of repetitive loops so they can really get used to that type of racing.”
The men’s team is set to race at 11 a.m. while the women’s team will start an hour later at noon.
Photo Courtesy of Springfield College Athletics