Sprinting to the finsh

The Baruch men's and women's cross-country team have been steadily working towards the CUNYAC championships that are scheduled to take place at the end of this month.

As per the women's team, Sara Soto, a sophomore, has been consecutively placing first with very respectable times according to her captain, Tracy Dimaculangan.

Dimaculangan went on to say that the entire team has great chemistry.

Other main contributors to the team are freshman, Dorothy Farrell, Brenda Maqque, Julianna Fricchione and head captain, Viktoria Mikhelzon.

To improve their skills the team practices at the FDR track for speed workouts and in Central Park for long distance runs.

On top of their running, they spend at least one day a week in the Baruch fitness center working on upper body conditioning.

On a personal level, they have individual workouts during the morning with a focus on biking, using the elliptical machines or water running.

As for the men's team, the season is off to a great start despite some of their placings. Captain Gilbert Marte attributes this to lacking ability for all of their best runners to race at once.

"Cross country is a sport where you don't have to have a good season record to win the championships," Marte said.

The two other runners who are considered Baruch's top three other than Marte are Omar Griffin, Hiroshi Nobuoka.

But some incoming runners that show promising potential are Gabriel Yanez, Xi Qing Mui and Mark Perkowski.

Marte says, "The cross country team has always gotten along really well and that has continued throughout the season."

For their workouts, Coach Soja changes their regiments on a weekly basis to add variety to the runner's skills and techniques, but the top runners consistently put in 50 to 60 miles of running per week.

This Sunday, the men's and women's teams will be running in the Highlander Challenge held in Newark, New Jersey at N.J.I.T.

The CUNYAC championships will be held on Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Next Sunday, Oct. 16th at the York invitational both teams return to action at Van Cortlandt Park.