In a competitive season for the Emerson men’s and women’s cross country teams, runners have been setting goals and making improvements one step at a time.
The Lions’ kicked off the season on Aug. 30 at the Suffolk Short Course Classic with the women’s team placing 15th out of 18 teams and the men’s at 14th out of 16. Seniors Yasmin Defne Dadikhi and John Lanza finished with the team’s best times at 11:25.2, 16th overall in the women’s 3k, and 18:27.9, 100th overall in the men’s 5k.
After a two-week break, Emerson competed in the Pop Crowell Invitational on Sep. 13, hosted by Gordon College, featuring longer distance runs that helped the Lions’ top runners shine. Emerson jumped to sixth out of 12 teams in the women’s bracket, and 10th out of 11 teams in the men’s bracket, with Dadikhi and Lanza leading the team again.
Dadikhi took home first place with a blistering 22:09.0 finish, and Lanza clocked in a final time of 28:55.5. Seniors Olivia Kardos and Honor Scorzelli joined their teammates in the top 30 and top 50 in the women’s and men’s bracket, respectively, with times of 25:40.6 and 29:45.7. Dadikhi’s performance at Pop Crowell earned her NEWMAC women’s cross country runner of the week honors for the second time in her career.
Most recently, the Lions raced at the 52nd UMass Dartmouth XC Invitational, which kept the same distance for the runs but featured a much larger field of teams. Emerson finished 26th out of 36 in the women’s race and 15th out of 18 in the men’s race. Once again, Dadikhi and Lanza led the Lions’ pack with times of 22:12.4 (26th overall) and 29:08.0 (87th overall).
Scorzelli, who also saw his time slightly dip compared to the Pop Crowell Invitational, noted the weather’s effect on all the runners. It was around 63 degrees at the start of the races, but the humidity was up to 48%.
“It was a brutally hot day, a little hotter than I think we predicted it to be,” he said. “This course had some shaded spots, but other parts were an open field. Running under that sun was a monstrous feeling.”
Dadikhi agreed with Scorzelli, noting that waiting in the heat for one’s race can be draining.
“Waiting around for hours before you can race is hard in the sun,” said Dadikhi, recalling the conditions from the meet. “We went there pretty early, around 8 a.m., and standing in the heat like that is tricky, but I’m quite used to running in the heat.”
Assistant Coach Oliver Glass discussed the mentality needed to overcome conditions that are out of the runner’s control.
“Everyone you’re racing against has to deal with the same weather, and when it is hotter, your time will be slower. That’s just kind of science,” he said. “At the end of the day, the sport is about beating the competitor next to you, not your final time.”
Scorzelli recently joined the team before the Pop Crowell Invitational and recounted his first handful of days. “They were…so welcoming to me.”
On top of Scorzelli’s addition to the team, Dadikhi highlighted the wave of new runners the team has seen this season.
“We have a lot of new people. There’s a new positive energy and everybody’s trying to get better each day,” she said. “Everybody wants to run fast and wants to come to practice and improve. I think it’s been good that we’re embracing this growth mindset.”
Glass has been preaching to the team to alter their approach for meets to take something positive away each time.
“What I’ve been trying to preach to them a lot is all process, process, process,” he said. “Everyone wants to PR every race, so understanding what you’re learning from each race and taking something positive out of it is so important as opposed to being down, as it will help our runners grow.”
Dadikhi is shooting for the stars to cap off her cross country career and get her storybook ending.
“I want to go to Nationals, but I really want to be an All-American,” she said. “I went to Nationals last year, but I wasn’t an All-American, and it would be a dream to get that honor.”
