BY MARY GETTENS
Two members of the women’s cross-country team were named Northeast Conference Prime Performer of the Week recently.
Victoria Lombardi and Emma Lawrence received the honors on Sept. 8.
Lombardi placed ninth with a time of 18:45:90, at the Vermont Invitational while Lawrence placed fourteenth with a time of 19:13:10.
Lombardi said she felt excited while going into the race Sept. 3 and had been preparing since the end of May, focusing on building her mileage over the summer.
“The anticipation along with it being our debut in a new conference made for a very fun and exciting atmosphere going in,” Lombardi said.
Stonehill officially joined the Northeast Conference, a Division I conference in July.
Fortunately for cross-country, off-season training did not change. Lombardi said training for cross country is very specific to the individual and figuring out what works best for the athlete involves a lot of trial and error.
But what changed is the competition level.
“I personally don’t ‘feel’ different (from going Division II to Division I), but I think as a team, the stakes and expectations are higher. In Division I, we race very strong teams. Our goal is to train in a way that best prepares us to go up against them and be as competitive as possible,” Lombardi said.
She said that what keeps her motivated to be the best prepared are her teammates, whom she describes as hard-working and determined athletes, and Head Coach Boen, who she said is always ready to go, motivating her and her teammates to always give their best effort.
Lombardi said that she was excited and honored to be recognized as a Prime Performer as it brings awareness and attention to the small sport of cross country, but she has additional goals this season.
“I’d love to continue to get better at every race, whether that is a better time, a better mindset, or a better execution of my race strategy. As a whole team, I would love to score in the top 3 at our conference meet. It’ll be our first championship race in our new conference, so I think it’d be really cool if we accomplished that,” said Lombardi.
Attempts to reach Lawrence were unsuccessful.