Running for their lives
Last September, when the Concordia Stingers cross-country team started up, they had a few enthusiastic runners, a willing coach and virtually no administrative support. A lot has changed since then. The team has grown immensely, and is now able to field full competitive teams in both the men’s and women’s categories with a solid group of reserve runners waiting in the wings, training hard and eager to compete.
The Stingers are now a force to be reckoned with on the interuniversity provincial cross-country running scene. Two weeks ago, at the Quebec cross-country championships in Sherbrooke, the team made Concordia history on several fronts. Johanna Winters became Concordia’s first cross-country conference all-star after placing fifth in the women’s five-kilometre event. Her performance led the women’s team to another Concordia first, finishing in the top three at a provincial cross-country championship.
The Stingers men also put in solid performances, led by Simon Malik-Giroux, who placed 25th in the men’s 10-kilometre event. The men, who have progressed significantly since last year, finished fourth out of the four Quebec universities competing.
This weekend, the Stingers will enter Concordia’s history books once again, as they travel to Quebec City to take on Canada’s best at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport National Cross-country Running Championships, hosted by Université Laval on the Plains of Abraham.
It will be the culmination of more than a year of hard work for many of the runners. The Stingers’ journey to nationals started last fall, after a small group of runners and coach John Lofranco decided to try to build a competitive cross-country team from the ground up.
The team’s first objective, as simple as it sounds, was to just run. Lofranco decided that the team needed to build a solid mileage base to be competitive this season.
The small group set an objective to run 1,000 miles before this year’s cross-country season. Many of the runners exceeded that goal. Stingers women’s captain Christina Lo Basso has logged close to 2,000 miles, or the distance to Cancun, since last September.
She attributes her marked improvement this season to her consistency over the past year. “If I hadn’t run as much as I did this past year, there’s no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be where I am at these days,” said Lo Basso, a third-year Exercise Science major.
Stingers men’s captain Kyle Verboomen attributes the team’s success this year to how the growing group gelled through hard work and commitment.
“It’s amazing how each workout can bring us closer as a team, because we all put in the same amount of effort and sweat the same sweat,” said Verboomen. “Since the start of the season, we’ve grown much closer together.”
Not only has the team come together through hard work and team fundraising activities, but also the Department of Recreation and Athletics and administration has put solid support behind the team’s efforts by providing uniforms and a boost in financial assistance.