Thursday, October 1, 2026
Dealt its first loss in five regular seasons, at the hands of Manhasset no less, so South Side’s girls’ cross country coach Chris Webster needed a 180 flip for his and his team’s mentality
“For this particular race it wasn’t about the girls individual times, they’re all very active, competitive runners, and they’re always looking at their watch to see if they’re going to have a personal best or not. At this county championship, we knew it was going to be a fast race but it wasn’t about your time, it was about your position, so I said to the girls ‘I don’t even want you looking at your watches for this race, I want you to listen to your bodies and I want you pushing your body,’” he explained.
‘Nevermind what your typical race pace is, we have to think about our position on the course, and we have to think about anytime we see someone from Manhasset or Bethpage or Calhoun, we just have to make sure we were not letting them pass us,” Webster added.
At the end of the day for Webster, it was about pushing through the bitter end, because running at their level requires so much mental focus.
“At some point it’s no longer a physical race it’s a mental race,” he detailed. “There’s going to be times in this race [they’re] going to have to mentally go after these people and that’s what they did.”
South Side’s Fayola Allison, who finished second overall in the Nassau Class II championships won by Manhasset Nov. 2 at Bethpage State Park in 19:23, is considered one of the best by her coach, primarily because of the mental toughness he said that she displays.
“What separates those top five girls from the team is that mental toughness; they know that that 5K race is going to be painful, and it’s going to be lonely, and it’s going to hurt and be uncomfortable, but they go into it anyway,” Webster said.
There’s also co-captains Lana Jewett and Kate Palya, good for second and sixth places in South Side’s placements at 20:30.70 and 21:56.40 respectively in the county meet, had a heavy hand in the success of the team as Webster said that the captains have been working with the team since this summer.
Rounding out the Cyclones’ top five were Maeve Nawrocki, who crossed the finish line at 20:37.70, Tessa Grande who finished at 20:52.80 and Sumaria Charron at 21:40.90.
Webster said that Nawrocki is consistently ranked as a top-three/four runner on the team, and that Grande is a freshman runner, making her a welcome surprise to the pack.
With state qualifying meet coming up, the approach has shifted a little, because South Side no longer feels that pressure to be perfect.
“We face them [Manhasset] again at the state qualifier and I think that the mood on the team right now is very relaxed and very excited about this race, I think they’re right where I want them to be,” Webster explained.
