Scarsdale held its annual invitational at Croton Park last week and came out victorious. In a meet that marks the halfway point of the season, Scarsdale’s long distance runners demonstrated their persistence and the hard work that they have put in in the past few months.

The athletes competed on a 5 km course with 11 other schools, from Irvington to Eastchester. The boy’s varsity team members performed their best to win first in overall sweepstakes. Daniel Asher ’20, along with 6 other Scarsdale runners, placed in the top 20 to give their team the lead. “I think I did really well, considering I’ve been out for three months, and only started training again about 4 weeks ago,” said Asher. The boy’s JV team also earned first in their division.

The girls’ varsity team placed third, trailing the competitive teams from Pearl River and Bronxville. “I think the girls have a really strong team this year. From our front runner to our fifth runner we only have a minute spread in between, which means the first runner is not that far ahead of the last one, and it’s really important to have a small spread in between the runners,” explained Victoria Capobianco ’20, girls’ varsity captain. Capobianco, who recently made a new personal record of 20:40 for 5 km, aims to lower her time to 20:30 or lower by the end of the season or by senior year. “The ultimate goal is no injuries, no accidents”, added Capobianco. The girls’ JV team also placed third in their sweepstakes.

Now, the team looks ahead to larger meets such as the League Championship meet with their rivals, Ursuline, and the Westchester County Championship near the end of October. “All we need to do is pack run and work hard together and I think we’ll do great,” said Capobianco.