SRCS Cross Country hosts first home meet in 3-years

The Salmon River Central School’s Cross Country program has grown by leaps and bounds over the past year as their participant numbers jumped from 5 runners last season to 26 this season.

“There has been a lot of recruiting this past year,” said SRCS Mohawk Ombudsman Kim Russell. “This program has been building and now had enough runners to have a full Boys and Girls Modified and Varsity teams for this season.”

The SRCS boys modified team has won a cross-country league meet in Gouverneur this season when they ran against 9-other well established teams. All four of the teams at SRCS are coached by Dan Mainville who brings with him 18-years of coaching experience. Mainville has been the coach at SRCS for the past decade and in 2002 the Varsity Boys team had won the Class D Championship.

“It is a new era for Cross Country at Salmon River,” said Coach Mainville. “We now have a 1.5 mile loop through the woods that includes two man-made hills and a 15-foot water pit.”

The water pit was the talk of the meet this past Tuesday as SRCS hosted their first home meet in three-years; competing teams arrived from Gouverneur and Brushton Moira.

“I remember we had a meet in the past against a team downstate and they had a water pit,” said Coach Mainville of the decision to include a water pit in the design of the local track. “This would be the only course in the area that has one. Our water pit has about 1-foot of sand to help prevent injury in case anyone falls.”

Construction of the new course began 2-years ago along with the expansion and renovations of the main campus within the SRC School District. The actual track was done with 4-months of consistent work that involved the use of an excavator, harley rake and many hours of hand raking before 15-hundred pounds of grass seed were put down. The man-made hills were created using the using the material taken out of the pit during the project on the main campus.

“The trail is open to the community if anyone wants to walk the trail,” said Mainville. “There are all kinds of wild apple trees, wildlife like deer and foxes; and two naturally formed ponds along the trail.”

A week after the course was completed the microburst hit the area and downed 7-trees along the path. Those trees were quickly removed and the track was ready to welcome teams to compete on the course.

“The team is now looking for funding to get new uniforms,” said Russell who is an SRCS Alumni and was also a cross-country runner on the very first team in SRCS history. “It is great to be here and see the very first track records being made.”