Port Chester x-country team off and running towards Croton Point
August 30, 2023 at 11:58 p.m.
The loneliness of the long distance runner just got less lonely for the Port Chester varsity Rams and Lady Rams with a flock of 17 talented cross-country runners out for the team.
While that isn't exactly a galloping herd, that number includes four returning senior Rams, three Rams from the same family (quite possibly a x-country first), a new assistant coach and the most talented sophomore contingent in almost two decades.
On the run again
So head varsity coach Cindy Martinez, one of the best Lady Ram distance runners ever back in the day, was understandably excited about her team's prospects during an 8:30 a.m. practice at Crawford Park leading up to Port Chester's first x-country meet of the new fall season Tuesday (9/5) at 4:30 p.m. against multiple schools at Croton Point Park.
Martinez, a language instructor in the Port Chester School District, still holds the Lady Rams school record for the mile in five minutes flat.
But the x-country races cover a longer distance: 3.1 miles for the varsity and 1.1 miles for the freshmen, hence the long distance training runs up and down the hills in Crawford Park.
Promising returnees
She thinks all those local runs over hill and dale will help her team navigate the hilly challenges in Croton Point.
So she predicts solid opening season performances from seniors Alejandro Salinas, Jonathan Abraham, Orhan Eski and Juan Mejia.
She sees it as a historic day in Abraham family athletic history because Jonathan will be in a race that includes his siblings, Andrew, a sophomore, and Aaron, a freshman.
The Rams’ outstanding performer will almost certainly be sophomore Santiago Marquez, the Venezuelan import who is a triathlon performer and won a number of freshman races last year. Other leading sophomore contenders include Lady Ram stalwarts Abigail Pesantez and Alexa Aguiriano.
Others looking good so far during the Crawford Park training runs include returning sophomore Camilla Ramos and newcomers Kristen Mejia and Mayrin Perez.
New assistant coach Imogen Lopez, an English teacher at the high school, will bring her perspective to the training process as she has while also volunteering during the previous winter and spring Track & Field season. And Hank Birdsall, cancer survivor, former Rambo-style Special Forces veteran, retired longtime Port Chester teacher and distance running coach with 36 years on the track, still takes an interest in the development of long distance runners. He has nurtured some of the area's best, including All-American Anthony Smith (circa the 1980s) and, more recently, Brooke and Leonard Pietrafesa, Joe Tapia and Tommy Perrone.
All of which adds up to the fact that the x-country Rams and Lady Rams are looking forward to a banner season starting with their upcoming meet and leading up to the league championships Oct. 3 at Croton Point Park at 4:30 p.m. And with that blend of senior experience and sophomore promise, they just might be contenders.
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