The Northwest Yeshiva High School’s cross country team had a strong and bright season this year. 

“I was really fortunate this year,”  Coach Marcy Park, who has been coaching for five years, said of the team. “our runners came into the season in pretty good condition.” 

NYHS’s cross country team practiced almost every day from August to October.

Home games took place in Seward Park and were 5k in distance (3.1 miles), with JV and varsity runners racing together. All of the runners for the NYHS cross country team competed in varsity. Girls usually race first and the boys race about 45 minutes later. 

The boys placed from 15th place to 43rd, while the girls placed between 19th and 33rd place.

“They were able to meet their goals early on,” said Park during the season. “In terms of time, I’ve seen huge improvement across the board for everybody, which is very exciting, so I think they are doing very, very well.” 

 The team did well despite multiple disruptions to their practice schedule during this season due to holidays and the outbreak of the Israel and Hamas war. This affected their championship performance, a race that took place October 19th among all the teams in the league.  

At the championship, the team came in 5th of the 5 scoring teams. Josh Benezra, team co-captain, was able to achieve a personal record of 20:08.6. 

The team members were able to shave off about 1-2 minutes of their mile time trials over the course of the season.  

Coming into the season, junior Eli Khaminov, a new teammate this year, says he didn’t know what to expect. “In the summer, I realized my cardio was bad so I started running every day and then I heard there was going to be a cross country team at NYHS,” Eli said. 

“I like sports that test your abilities against yourself and compete against yourself,” Manny Spinoza, the team’s co-captain, said.

“It was way more supportive than I thought it would be and everyone was very supportive,” said Khaminov. “It wasn’t only a thing for a first impression, it went on for the entirety of the season.”

Support was a topic everyone had mentioned when asked about the season. 

“My favorite part of coaching is getting to see students in a different way…and getting to see their other strengths and talents that aren’t necessarily academic related,” Park said. “Getting to see them be leaders…this year I especially enjoyed seeing the team come together and embracing the team concept and supporting each other.” 

“I guess my favorite thing is to really be there and run with your team,” Spinoza said.