Interviews with Captains Sinéad O’Donnell ‘17 and Liz Longo ‘17
By Jessica Garcia
The Canterbury girls cross country team had a very successful season this year. Led by their captains, sixth formers Sinéad O’Donnell and Liz Longo, the team had a fun and eventful 2016 season.
“The key goals for the season were to stay united and work as a ‘wolf pack.’ ” said Liz. “We had several dual meets that we were expected to win and we did, but our main goal was to always push each other as a team to reach our highest point personally.”
“I think these goals were met because mostly all of our meets we worked hard as a team and were united.” Sinéad added. “One big goal for the season was for the team to place top ten at New England’s, and we accomplished this goal. We came in eighth place.”
Sinéad and Liz both agreed that another key goal was for each girl to perform to the best of their abilities, which they feel was accomplished largely through the encouragement and support of every teammate.
The girls have a set weekly schedule with a different workout required per day. On Mondays, they run three to eight mile long runs; Tuesdays, two to four miles then team drills, core, arms, and weights; Wednesdays are dedicated to speed or workouts on the hill; Thursdays are three to five miles then arms and core workouts; and Fridays to prepare for races.
“Before big meets, we still try and keep the same mentality that we do at any meet, except maybe push the mentality to a bigger level because we know that this particular meet is more important,” Liz said.
Sinéad added, “All the girls put in so much hard work training during the weeks leading up to a race that the best thing for them to do to prepare is to drink a lot of water, get enough sleep and trust in their training and their teammates to push them.”
Both Sinéad and Liz agree that the girls had a great overall season. Their coach, Mrs. Garcia-LaVigne, said that they were the fastest team she has ever coached. Liz says, “We all set PRs (personal records) for the season at Williston the weekend before New England’s and we all worked our hardest at every meet.”.
Sinéad summed up the season by saying, “Not only did we have a lot of girls who wanted to run, but we had a lot of good runners.
We worked hard, made a lot of memories and did pretty well at New Englands, and the team is looking to improve and do even better next year.”
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