Crusaders Earn Season-Opening Cross Country Win At Distinct Home Course

PLEASANT LAKE – The cross country course at Cape Cod Tech is a beast. 

It’s hilly and curving. Between grass, gravel, sand and pavement, the route includes at least four different types of surfaces to navigate.

But for all that challenge, the course very well may also play a role in the strength of the Cape Tech cross country team. The Crusaders haven’t lost a race at home since 2022 (according to results posted on ArbiterLive).

“It’s really hard, but it's like when we're doing this during the preseason in August, and it's really hot out, it really helps,” junior Casey Fitzgerald said.

The significant obstacle on the path is a sharp incline that must be tackled multiple times on the way to the finish. Less a Heartbreak Hill and more a Shin-Busting Swell, the ascent is covered in sand. Sprints are muddled to breath-catching walks here.

The steep challenge arrives nearly instantly after the start line, lying in wait just past an opening dash across grass. Runners then have to contend a couple more times with the sandy monster, returning to the stretch via a left-turning decline on gravel. The difficult 5-kilometer layout was designed by head coach Sam McCormack.

“He puts us through it,” sophomore Jayden Lecroix said. “We're a small team, so it's kind of like we have to try harder and work harder than every team we have.”

The advantage felt by the team at the Cape Tech route then travels with them on the road. After practicing on their track all the time, the Crusaders go to the flat course at other schools and “run right through them,” Fitzgerald said.

“That's how the last two years have been for me, is I work out here really hard, and then I go out and run on these courses, and it's like I'm not fighting the course as much as I'm just fighting the other person next to me,” he said.

Last Friday, the Crusaders successfully grappled with their home turf in a 50-17 win against Atlantis Charter to begin the dual-meet season. Fitzgerald finished first in 17:46, with Lecroix just behind at 17:48.

Sophomore Moses Fellman finished in 20:03, Hawk Shepherd in 20:49, Aaron Michalowski 21:32, junior Jake Pilarella in 21:37 and sophomore Landon Donahue in 24:34.

“As a team, we did pretty well,” Fitzgerald said. “That was actually better than I thought we were going to do in the first place. I thought today would be kind of like a build-up day, but I think that everybody actually came in pretty hard and fast, so that was great.”

The second-place finish right with Fitzgerald (the reigning vocational small school state champion) was Lecroix’s first race ever with the team. After running track as a freshman, Lecroix has catapulted to the forefront of the Cape Tech cross country lineup.

McCormack believed both Fitzgerald and Lecroix would be at the sub-17 minute mark within the next two weeks.

“Really good athlete, really good runner, so hopefully we can really build off each other this season,” Fitzgerald said.

Of his cross country debut, Lecroix said: “I think I could be really good if I really commit to it, and when I commit to something, I feel like I can really get into it if I try.”

The team’s goals include individual aspirations: Fellman seeks to reach the 18-minute frame, while Shepherd, Michalowski and Pilarella want to get under 20. 

Donahue, who’s already shaved 10 minutes off his time from last year, is aiming for the 22-minute mark.

“Crazy good and a super hard worker,” McCormack said.

Fitzgerald wants the Crusaders to win all their dual meets, plus the Mayflower Athletic Conference’s small school championship. (He finished second at the conference meet last season.) Then they’ll see what they can do at vocational and states.

Similarly, McCormack’s new goal after the team’s first meet “is to sneak up and shock many of the much larger schools.”

But first, the Crusaders will have to climb their steep and sandy hill a few more times.

“I just want to improve every single meet,” Lecroix said.