Cross Country Q&A: Cori Persinger

Cori Persinger of the women's cross country team tells us about what it's like going into her senior year, and what we can expect from the men's and women's cross country teams this season:

Q: How were your first three seasons of cross country?

A: The past three seasons that I have been a part of, we've seen great signs of progression in our team. My freshman year we were a really young team, we had a lot of freshmen but only a few seniors. However, over the past few years our team dynamic has grown stronger and we've been able to have a lot higher retainment. This has been really beneficial for us because we've been able to build upon each year.

Q: How do you think this season will be different?

A: Having a new head coach will be very different. I think she's going to be a really big asset for our team. She's excited for us, believes in us and had a phenomenal running career of her own so she's going to be an amazing example for us to look up to. I also see a lot of spunk and fight in a lot of our girls, who are competitive and excited to run, which will add to the great team dynamic we are building.

Q: How has the transition to head coach been with Coach Mosqueda?

A: It's been really good. She was our assistant coach last year and we really bonded with her, which made it a much easier transition than if we had received a new coach entirely. We've been following a similar training plan as we did last year, so having that consistency has been good. She's been working really hard to maintain team unity between the men's and women's team, which is something that we haven't had in the past, but being able to work off each other will be really beneficial.

Q: What have you been doing this summer to prepare for this season?

A: We trained all summer on our own with workouts from our coach. We did a progression that led directly into the season and then we started team training in August.

Q: How do you feel going into the first meet of the season this weekend?

A: I feel good! We have some injuries on both our men's and women's teams so we're hoping to sort that out. I think this meet will be a good starting place for the season just to feel out our racing.

Q: What are you hoping to achieve this season, personally?

A: Personally, I'm just hoping to keep improving. My times have been getting faster throughout my years here, which is really encouraging, because that doesn't always happen for women at this level. I'm also excited for the team as a whole and the legacy that our senior class is hoping to leave, which is that this is a four-year program that you can continue to improve in.

Q: What can we expect from the cross country team as a whole this season?

A: You can expect to see something that looks like a family of people who are constantly encouraging each other, pushing each other and also care for one another. We're expecting really good results from our men's team both at WCC and at Regionals. For the women's team as well, we're hoping to place at WCC and Regionals as well.

Q: What are you most excited about this season?

A: I'm most excited for the competitions! Since this is my last season, I'm less nervous and more just excited to run them, run them well and go out with a satisfactory feeling.

Players Mentioned

Cori Persinger

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