Runners finish with fast times at end of x-country season
November 9, 2023 at 12:12 a.m.
The loneliness of the Port Chester Rams and Lady Rams distance runners will now take their loneliness indoors.
The fall cross-country season has ended, but not before the school's best distance runners had two last races that resulted in fast times in the final two meets of the season.
And when the last race was run, sophomore Venezuelan import Santiago Marquez had cut nearly a minute off his previous best time and three of the Rams’ hardest-working seniors had run their last cross-country race for Port Chester.
So the results of the distance running championships of the past few weeks are worth noting.
The Hudson Valley Sportsdome
In their next-to-last race of the season, the Rams and Lady Rams harriers ran for the first time at the Hudson Valley Sportsdome in Upstate Milton in the Coaches Invitational Westchester County Championships (10/28). It was an unfamiliar course and that made judging pacing difficult for the 3.1-mile run, but Marquez still managed to finish in 19:43, which means he averaged just under seven minutes per mile. Alejandro Salinas crossed the finish line in 21:12, Orhan Eski (one of the school's best students) came in with a 26:24 time while Nicholas Wolff clocked in at 27:10.
Sophomore Santiago Marquez finished the unfamiliar 3.1-mile course at the Hudson Valley Sportsdome in 19:43, averaging just under seven minutes per mile, in the Coaches Invitational Westchester County Cross-Country Championships Saturday, Oct. 28.Courtesy of Cindy Martinez
Sophomore Abigail Pesantez led the Lady Rams with a time of 27:05 while her usual sophomore running mate Alexa Aguiriano was a profile in courage because she somehow managed to finish the race while suffering pain in the area known as runner's knee. And hard-running senior Jonathan Abraham had to miss the wedding because he had to attend a family wedding.
End of the line
The times were better for the Rams, albeit not better for the Lady Rams in the season's finale, the Section One championships, last Saturday (11/4) at Bowdoin State Park in Wappingers Falls. Marquez, a triathlon athlete, ran the hilly course in 19:11, more than 30 seconds faster than he ran at the Hudson Valley Sportsdome. And the senior trio of Salinas (21:47), Juan Mejia (22:16) and Abraham (2:27) ran their last competitive cross-country races for Port Chester while running injuries sidelined the entire Lady Rams team.
Marquez, potentially one of the Rams’ best distance runners ever, ended the cross-country season with something of a dilemma: should he compete indoors in Track & Field during the upcoming winter season in mile and two-mile races at the 168th Street Regiment Armory in New York City or should he race for the varsity swimming Rams where he is regarded as one of the best swimmers in school history.
Decision time looms
Marquez, who comes from a family of mountain bikers, ocean swimmers and distance runners, wants to be a professional triathlon athlete, so he is leaning towards swimming this year over indoor track. "I love swimming, so that's what I will be doing," he told Westmore News. "But that's because I am only a sophomore. But next year, it will be different because I will concentrate solely on running because that is my best chance for a college athletic scholarship. So next year it will be different. But this year I will swim."
That decision will make new Rams swim coach Colleen Cahill happy, at least for this year. And head cross-country coach Cindy Reyes Martinez, who also coaches T&F indoors, will have to wait until next year for Santiago to run full-time. "I look forward to working with Santiago as he learns the courses and becomes a more experienced cross-country runner," she said. "I believe that Marquez is one of the best runners that Port Chester ever had (which means she puts him up there with all-time Ram great Anthony Smith, Port Chester's All-America circa the 1980s, and such recent greats as Joe Tapia and Michael Perrone). "I believe he is All-County material."
But that is speculation for another day because the running Rams and Lady Rams and their coach had their minds on their next collective venture: their end of season party at John's of Arthur Avenue pizzeria scheduled for Wednesday (11/8). And there's no blaming them for looking forward to that delicious combo of mozzarella, red sauce, crunchy crust and soft drinks, much more desirable than the grueling hills of Bowdoin State Park, the Hudson Valley Sportsdome or the seemingly endless straightaways and turns at the Armory indoors in NYC.
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