Dave Scarnato
Staff Writer

When you envision running in a race, all you can picture is the finish line. But, the obstacle of getting to that line is running the race itself. Finishing (or even winning) the race in the quickest time is a runner’s primary goal.

Another goal would be to win that race.

In Cross Country, this is a team effort. The team with the best time wins, making every runner work hard to run the best time possible. The team goal for both the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country team is to win the CSAC this year. The Pacers are fired up and ready to compete in 2010.

What more could coaches Kevin Borelli and John Evangelista want more out of their players?

For the Men’s squad, sophomore Brian Lewis has the confi- dence in himself, as well as his teammates.

“We are definitely looking like a strong team. By hard work in practice, we want to set our goalas hopefully becoming the CSAC champions.”

Speaking of hard work, junior Shelby Naughton did some extra work in the offseason. This year, she is helping her team finish with the best time by dropping time in her personal record.

“I’m feeling good so far,” Shelby commented, “hopefully this will help us win the CSAC this year.”

Lauren Rustad has high expectations for the Women’s team as well. “We are ready to go this year. I know we can finish in the top ten of this region as well as winning the CSAC.”

The region that Lauren speaks of, as I was informed, is said to be one of the toughest regions in the area. Marywood wants to be a force in this region. Just the confident facial features on the three I interviewed made me want to go out and run with them. But, I decided to write the season preview while they do the work.

The Men’s roster has three seniors. They are Keith Makar, David Marra, and Cristian Triana. The lone junior is Mike O’Neill. The sophomores are Damon Giambrone, Kevin Iboy, Brian Lewis, and Eric Sprenkle. The freshmen are Julian Caiazzo and Michael Legath.

The Women’s roster does not contain any seniors, but has two experienced juniors in Shelby Naughton and Lauren Rustad looking to help lead the Pacers. Sophomores are Sarah Bauer, Stephanie Bender, Kelsey Dunn, Riley Marcks, and Jessica McCauley. The freshman class is the bulk of the team containing Diana D’Achille, Lauren Gates, Brianne Henderson, Ashley Laurinaitis, Kimberly Layton, Jessica Marks, Elizabeth Schwab, and Kathleen Sylvester.

The impact of the freshman class on the Women’s team is obviously the larger of the two teams. This is a positive sign for the Pacers because they can all now develop into great runners and are now the future of Marywood Cross Country. They have the same amount of energy as the juniors, which will make this a very exciting team to watch. The excitement of these players assured me that the Cross Country team will not stop until they win the CSAC.

Good luck runners on a healthy and safe 2010 season.