Gabriella Pagano’s eighth-place finish led the way for the Rowan women’s cross country team to come in 20th overall at the Paul Short Run, hosted by Lehigh University.
Pagano’s time of 21:14.1 set a new personal record for her, already the second time she’s done so this season. Her efforts this past weekend earned yet another New Jersey Athletic Conference Runner of the Week award, her third this season.
Pagano certainly exceeded her own expectations heading into the race.
“I had the individual goal of being in the top 20 and running a sub-22, which obviously was exceeded,” Pagano said.
Head coach Shedrick Elliott III wasn’t surprised by her performance, however, and felt that Pagano’s growth was starting to truly show.
“I fully believe that she’s starting to fly those wings,” Elliott III said.
The Paul Short Run is certainly not like most races the team has to deal with, as it’s one of the biggest races of the season on the East Coast. It brings a variety of nationally ranked teams from across the country, and over 400 runners participated in the race. So, there certainly was more of a focus on individual performance than sticking close together with that many runners clashing.
Elliott III wasn’t as focused on where the team placed overall, but more on the teams that they went up against that they’ll see in the postseason.
“Just paying attention to the teams that are gonna have an impact on us in our conference and our region,” Elliott III said.
Those teams Elliott III mentioned include The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), Swarthmore, and Moravian. Rowan placed higher than all of them from a team standpoint, but the team knows that won’t matter until it’s time to face off in the postseason.
Other top-performers for the Profs include Shannon Stakelbeck finishing 97th, Jezenna Aponte finishing 183rd, Ally Wernick in 218th, and rounding out the Profs’ scoring was Juliana Sieminski placing 229th.
Sieminski, a freshman from Delsea Regional, has been the top-performing underclassman for the team this season and certainly seems poised to become a strong contributor over the next four years for the Profs.
“I think she’s very consistent. I like her steadiness where she doesn’t go out too aggressively,” Elliott III said. “I feel like her history in high school was that she would go out aggressively and fall off. I think with Coach Eric’s (Dubois) training, she’s just been getting stronger, so that allows her to maintain a stronger pace and finish more consistently throughout the entire race.”
Sieminski still feels that despite her improvement in consistency, she still has more to improve on as far as that goes heading into the postseason.
“I definitely start off too aggressive or too slow sometimes,” Sieminski said.
The team continues their regular-season on Saturday, Oct. 18, when they host the Rowan Border Battle at DREAM Park in Logan Township, New Jersey.
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