Cross-country running team makes a comeback

After four years in the doldrums, this Concordia club is back in the race

By Adam Klevinas

An ambitious coach and 10 hard-working runners see a bright future for the newly reborn cross-country team.

Coach John Lofranco, a runner for 15 years, started the Concordia Running Club last year. He wanted to give students a chance to compete in inter-university sport.

“A running club was the first step toward building a competitive team,” said Lofranco, a part-time faculty member in the English Department.

“I wanted to see if there was any interest, and it appears there is. I ran in university, and it was an amazing experience. I wanted others to have that opportunity.

“This is a committed, determined team. Because of that, they all have the potential to be very good runners.”

Ten runners of varied running experience have been training for the cross-country season since the end of August. They train up to six times a week out of the Victoria Gym or on Mount Royal, and hope to field full teams of five men and five women at the provincials in late October.

Kyle Verboomen, a veteran runner and the team’s top male, believes the team works just as hard as any other varsity team at Concordia, despite their status as a club.

“We sweat the same sweat as the other varsity teams do,” Verboomen said. “We deal with the same time management issues and put in the same amount of work as the other teams.”

“The way our team sees it, the only way we are going to complete a 1,000-mile journey is if we take it one step at a time with our heads up,” he said, “I really want this team to get out there and show everyone what we’ve got.”

Some of the team’s workouts have them out running 20-kilometre practices on Sunday mornings, or trudging up Mount Royal for intense interval sessions on weekdays. These see the runners running at race speed or more, then stopping for very short breaks.

Lofranco believes that being part of a team gives the runners motivation and consistent training in a sport that is essentially individual.

Many of the team’s members are exchange students, like Rafael Aguilar, on exchange from Mexico City. “I’m glad to be one of the pioneers of this project,” he said. “I just hope many more people get involved and enjoy it.”

They’re at the back of the pack this year, but they want to gain experience and build a foundation for the future. Lofranco thinks the team can be one of the best in Quebec over the next five years, and that individual runners like Christina Lo Basso can be among the top in the province.

There are challenges, though. The team is not adequately supported financially. They have raced two meets this year with borrowed jerseys, and hope to have new ones for their final meet this year.

Although injuries haven’t been a major problem, Verboomen has been nursing a knee injury for the past few weeks.

The team will compete twice more this year before the focus switches to the indoor track season this winter. The team’s final two races are at Université Laval on Oct. 15, and the QSSF provincial championships are at Montréal Olympique on Oct. 29.

The men’s team will race in the 10-km and the women’s team in the five-km event. Come and cheer them on, or follow their results at www.sportingcanada.com/xc.