University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Marist Season Opener
Huskies Ready for 2022 Season to Step Off
9/2/2022 3:05:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
STORRS, Conn. – The 2022 cross country season is set to get underway this weekend and the UConn Huskies are ready to hit the ground running under first year head coach Beth Alford-Sullivan.
The Huskies will get their first chance to line up and race this Saturday morning when they take part in the Marist Season Opener at Vassar Farm in Poughkeepsie, NY.
UConn will open with a limited lineup that will feature a majority of freshmen getting their first chance to race collegiately. "We have had a great preseason, the team came in fit and ready to go," commented Coach Sullivan. "We've had about two weeks of great training. This weekend we will open up the majority of the freshmen and some of the upperclassman. We will all travel together as a team, but we will open up a small group to get our feet wet and give our freshmen a taste of what it's like to race in college."
After this weekend's race, the Huskies will take part in a pair of races on courses that will play a role during the championship portion of the season. UConn heads to the Providence Friar Invitational at Mark Coogan Cross Country Course at Highland Park in Attleboro, MA, site of this year's BIG EAST Championship, and Van Cortland Park in the Bronx for the Iona Meet of Champions, home to this year's NCAA Northeast Regional Championship.
"From here we go into a three-week cycle where we got to a course at Providence, where BIG EAST will be, and at Iona, where the regional race will be. We are looking forward to getting through some different rotations these few weeks, see where everyone is at and get our feet wet with racing. This will be a heavy month of training, lots of miles, as we head to the middle of October."
"There is a lot that goes into it even though the thought is just go out and run hard. That is a piece of it but there is a lot of strategy that goes into a course and that's why we want to go out and see these courses early on so we can strengthen our strategies and see where are strengths and weakness are and develop those as we move through this season."
Before the Huskies can move on to the next stage of the opening race schedule, Saturday's race at Marist will provide a chance for Coach Sullivan to get a first look at this year's team in action and the newest Huskies get to see where they stack up on the collegiate level. "I have a lot to learn still about our crew but they are hungry and excited and motivated," commented the head coach. "I think we have a great season ahead of us."
UConn has a solid trio at the top of their lineup and great depth through the rest of the roster. Sophomore Chloe Thomas (Dundas, Ontario), junior Jenna Zydanowicz (West Hartford, CT) and grad student Randi Burr (Westerly, RI).
Thomas ran for Team Canada at this summer's U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, running the 3,000 meters. Thomas had an outstanding freshman cross country season, earning All-BIG EAST honors with a seventh place finish and followed that up with a 14th place showing at the NCAA Northeast Regional in a season-best time of 21:05.06 for All-Region honors.
Zydanowicz had her best-time on a 6K course at the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational at 21:39.1. As a freshman, she earned All-BIG EAST honors finishing sixth with a career-best time of 20:51.2.
Burr is coming off a break-out track season last year where she was the gold medal winner in the 5,000 meters at the BIG EAST Indoor Championships and then took silver in the 10,000 meters at the conference outdoor championship meet. In the spring covid season in 2021, she finished fifth in at the BIG EAST Cross Country Championship and last fall was 25th at the conference race and 30th at the NCAA Northeast Regional.
"Chloe Thomas is coming off a good summer of racing and will open later this season but she is fit and training well and adapting really well to her sophomore season in cross country. Randi Burr, she is just really stepped up. She had a tremendous season last year especially in track. She has stepped up, is a super senior on this squad and is a great team leader. Jenna is also really stepped up and has come in with great fitness. I think they give us a great 1-2-3 punch that when we open them up together, it should be pretty spectacular. Then we have some great depth that to fill us out and I'm looking forward to seeing those battles within to earn those spots as well"
Players Mentioned
