Winning a cross-country trophy takes lots of difficult training and perseverance. Not only do cross-country athletes run difficult practices with tough terrain, but they also push through physical and mental blocks. Nonetheless, these challenges haven’t stopped the boys’ cross-country team from succeeding.
On Saturday, September 7th, the boys’ cross country team headed to compete at the Desales Centaur Invitational in Center Valley PA. The varsity top 7 consisted of John Kuzmission, Sean Donahue, Roman Macedo, Ben Sensinger, William Godshall, Gavin Duun, and Porter Fryauff. John came in 12th and Sean came in 25th for the Varsity boys. After calling up different teams at the awards ceremony, the announcer declared that Upper Perkiomen secured 4th place with a team score of 165.
The team has had an undefeated season in the Pioneer Athletic Conference – holding onto their record of 5-0. Coach Nieman told the Walt Street Journal this year the team is “a great mix of upperclassmen and younger runners. John Kuzzmisson and Sean Donahue both ran personal records and won medals.”
Moving forward at these upcoming big meets, like PACS and Districts, the goal is for the boys to be 4-5 in the league and top 40 in the district. The top 3 runners on the team are junior John Kuzzmisson, freshman Thomas Daub, and sophomore Sean Donahue. Coach Niemann stated, “We are lucky that Sean has joined us this year. Our performance will improve as Roman’s health gets better.”
This success came in part from the team’s preparations during the preseason. The team focused on increasing their mileage and incorporating hill workouts on Fridays. The team had a few workouts this season and continues to keep up with the mileage. Coach Niemann said, “Coach Dusza has done an outstanding job of training the boys and the boys have done an outstanding job of trusting that training.” If you want to continue to see how the boy’s cross country team is doing, check out their Instagram @upboysxc or the upper perk athletics page at upperperkathletics.com.
