Greyducks Return To State Championships

Tired and exhausted, the Greyducks, Stuyvesant’s girls’ varsity cross country team, waited nervously for their results as the race came to an end. Fresh off of winning the Borough Championships, the Greyducks looked to replicate that success in the much tougher City Championships on November 11 at Van Cortlandt Park. Going into the competition, the team knew it was going to be a bigger challenge than the Borough Championships but was driven to make it to the State Federation meet for the second year in a row. There were 198 and 154 participants in the junior varsity race and varsity race, respectively, from schools all over New York City, and all of them were ready to compete.

The top four teams in the varsity race would automatically qualify for State’s. As the results were announced, there were shouts of joy: the Greyducks had finished third, behind Brooklyn Technical High School and Susan Wagner High School, securing their spot at the State competition.

In the junior varsity race, sophomore Ester Suleymanov finished in ninth place with a time of 24:06:45. She was followed by senior Connie Lei (24:49:41) in 27th, sophomore Ling Chen (24:59:99) in 32nd, and junior Bernice Chen (25:39:18) in 49th place. Coach Rachel Beck noted that many new personal bests for the girls on the team were recorded at the City Championships.

Throughout the season, junior Clara Mohri and freshman Julianne Yotov had been leading the varsity team. This time, it was no different. Mohri finished at seventh (20:19:93) while Yotov finished seconds behind at ninth (20:24:28). They were followed by sophomore Elizabeth Reizis at 35th (22:03:97), freshman Agatha Edwards at 55th (22:52:91), junior Tiffany Zhong at 72nd (23:24:16), freshman Jessica Kwok at 90th (23:49:67), and junior Vivian Cribb at 97th (24:07:50). “We have been training very hard this season, so it’s great that all our work is paying off,” Yotov said.

“Although we suffered some injuries throughout the season, we were able to persevere and place third overall in the city,” Zhong said.

As the cross country season comes to a close, Coach Beck looks back on the season with great pride. “The lady Greyducks have had a very successful season. Both Coach [Laurie] Burke and I are extremely proud of all the girls on the team who showed up each week to run with heart and grit,” Coach Beck said. “We saw so many PR’s [personal records] over the course of the season. Our top seven girls will round out the season by heading upstate this weekend for the second year in a row to compete in the state meet! Stay tuned.”