Cross Country Team Gets out of the Gate at Byram Hills

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On Tuesday September 10, Somers traveled to Byram Hills High School for the first dual meet of the season and banking off Exit 3 of 684 turned out to be a bit of a prelude for the run. “I wasn’t really into all the sharp turns on the course,” said Mia Sandolo. But she still managed a third place finish, and her teammate did the race one better.

Julia Duzynski finished second (19:34), and this early in the season, she wasn’t worried about finishing behind another All World performance by John Jay’s Sloan Wasserman. Not going all out, said the junior, “I was still close to my 19:30 range.”

Forty-Five seconds behind, Sandolo was much more amenable to the peaks and valleys of the course. “There was a good amount of rolling hills,” said the senior. “I like the downhill so I got to open up my strides.”

Down the stretch, she did have John Jay’s Emma Barniv trying to make up ground, so Sandolo drove hard with her knees. “I was trying to keep up my pace,” she assured.

Julia Aquilino probably had the same idea, but the senior takes the whole thing in stride as a rule. “It’s great to never take anything too seriously but still put in your best effort,” she said after taking 5th at 20:50

Even so, she has a ground gobbling strategy that always has the check in the mail. “The hills pay the bills,” Aquilino joked.

Cashing out, the girls have remained round the bend in terms of the postseason. “We went to the states my sophomore year, and ever since we went on that high, we’ve been chasing it.”

Also on the run, Aidan See was the first finisher for the boys team. In sixth place with a time of 18:51, the Tusker definitely wasn’t complaining about the mostly flat course and got going early. “My first mile was good,” said the sophomore.

Nonetheless, the home stretch had him lamenting how far from home he still seemed. “That’s a long way,” he recounted the remaining grind.

Christian Lobasso had the same vision of the long view. “I was glad to see the finish line,” sighed the senior, who came in at 19:35.

His first run at Byram Hills, he had some forewarning on the type of course but let practice do all the strategizing. “This what we trained for so I didn’t put much thought into it,” he admitted.

In real time, though, getting out hard took his breath away. “I couldn’t breathe,” said Lobasso.

But pushing on is just the name of the game. “I tried to put my mind off it, keep a stable pace and make it to the end,” Lobasso explained.

Gianni Bernardi got there too, and he scaled to 11th place (19:54) on the incline. “A big part of my strategy as a runner is pushing up hills,” said the junior. “That’s where I pass the most people.”

Otherwise, he keeps his eyes ahead. “What I like to do is pick a guy in front of me, and if I can catch up and run with him, that’s my goal.” Said Bernardi.

Then he sets his sights on the next guy and so does the general attitude of keeping Somers track on the upswing. “We work well with the team to build up the new freshman, so when the seniors graduate, we can still have a solid base," concluded Duzynski.

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