The Rowan women’s cross country team just ran in arguably the most difficult course they will compete in all season. The Paul Short Run at Lehigh University is already a monster of a course. That, along with the bad weather conditions, didn’t help the team in the slightest. Most runners and teams would have given up or made excuses given the conditions, but not Rowan University. The women’s cross country team pushed through the adversity.

Some of the top performers from this meet were Anna Sasse who ran a 22:34.3, which was the fastest of any Prof, Gabriella Pagano, who finished second among Rowan University athletes with a time of 22:36.1, Mia Guerra (23:06.9), Emily Zanni (24:28.5), Shannon Stakelbeck (24:36.4), and Zoey Doelling (24:49.4) all finished under 25 minutes while Maggie Michelet (25:04.7), Mackenzie Saber (25:14.8), and Issy Smith (25:35.5) were just a tick behind.

Sasse had her minute best during this meet and she’s planning to keep her hot streak going. She placed first in her last meet and carried that over into a new career high this past weekend. With the season reaching its halfway point, it wouldn’t shock anyone if Sasse is one of the Rowan athletes who do well at regionals and potentially nationals.

“It was a great race,” Sasse said. “I would rate it a pretty good performance because it was a minute best for me at the Lehigh course.”

The toughest part of the race was the third mile. Most runners want to quit during the third mile and it takes extreme willpower to keep yourself going. The struggle Rowan had with the third mile is something they won’t ever forget.

“The third mile at Lehigh can be pretty tough and it makes you want to give up,” Sasse said. “Pushing through the third mile at Lehigh is something you look back on in other races as motivation to finish the race you’re currently on. Moving forward the team will look back at this as a lesson.”

Pagano was one of the athletes that stood out during the race. Her time was the second-best out of all the Profs and 66th best in the entire meet. 

“Coming through the first mile I was in 155th place,” Pagano said. “Across the course of the race, I moved up 69 places. Through the first mile I was alone but coming around toward the two-mile mark I spotted Mia [Guerra] and that was pretty uplifting.”

Stakelbeck and Pagano picked off tons of runners during the race. Head coach Shedrick Elliott III told the team that he wanted them to pass as many runners as possible during certain stages of the race. 

“Gabriella and Shannon were able to progressively over the course of the race pass people,” Elliott said. “Picking off two people, three people, five people, was something I highlighted to the ladies and statistically Gabriella and Shannon did that the most.” 

This race was good for individual athletes seeking new personal records. The improved times on a challenging course are a testament to the team’s practice regiment. For the next two weeks or three weeks, the practice intensity will stay high but after that, the athletes will “deload,” as they put it. When it comes to cross country, a lot of the intense training happens in the summer. Most sessions are nine to 10 miles long but when the season starts it goes down to around eight or less.

“We are going to get some more really good weeks of training in before deloading, and transitioning into conference prep,” Elliot III said. “Some others will do more track prep. The groups that will go to regionals and hopefully nationals will stay with the current practice intensity to remain sharp.”

Rowan’s next meet is the Border Battle meet, which takes place at DREAM Park in Logan Township on Oct. 19 2024. It will be their last meet before the NJAC Championships.

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