On Saturday November 9th, the women’s cross country team traveled down to Eugene to compete in the State event at Lane Community College. Although the Crusaders lost two of their top runners to injuries before the race, one new varsity runner stuck out in particular. Georgia Daskalos, a first year varsity runner placed 19th at the state event and got 1st out of all the Jesuit runners that competed that day.
Starting Cross Country sophomore year after playing JV2 Gold soccer during her freshman year, Daskalos found her place on the Cross Country team after moving up a team each year as runner.
Not only does Georgia stand out on the race course, but she also has played Varsity Lacrosse since freshman year. Georgia has always been known to be the fastest on the lacrosse field, chasing down opponents and transitioning the ball onto the offensive side of the field. She was soon encouraged after her freshman year by her teammates and coaches to join the cross country team the following fall.
“It was definitely a bold choice because none of my friends do cross country,” Daskalos said. “And I was stepping out of my comfort zone. But I am very happy with the decision I made.”
Having to go from sprinting up and down the field for a couple of minutes, to running multiple miles at a consistent pace was definitely a challenge for Daskalos as she had to train everyday to get better at the sport: “Training for cross country was definitely something I had to jump into because if you don’t go for it and run with better runners then I would have never gotten to the point that I am today,” Daskalos said.
How is lacrosse similar to cross country in a way?
The commitment and the comradery of the sport is similar as well as the team aspect.
Throughout this past season, Daskalos’ times have significantly improved especially during the Metro League championships when she made a personal best time of 18:34.1 and placed 10th out of 47 runners. Daskalos’ hard work and dedication has really been paying off this past season and that was clearly shown at the state event.
On Saturday, Georgia started out in 3rd out of all the Jesuit girls. She was tailing senior Maura O’Scannlain and freshman Anya Augustine for the first lap and a half of the race. As the second lap progressed, she pulled away from multiple opponents especially on the last 400 meters on the track, passing 5 runners and finishing with a time of 18:49.40 placing 19th out of 153 runners.
After the race, Daskalos was very happy with the results, but wanted to be there for her teammates as some of them would be running their last race: “I felt accomplished after my race,” Daskalos said. “But my first thought after I finished was to go back and find my teammates.”
Senior Maura O’Scannlain has grown close with Daskalos as she has joined the varsity team this year. She loves having Georgia on the team and has seen her grow as a runner this past season.
“Georgia always showed up to practice with a positive attitude and lots of laughter, but was always ready to work hard. It was amazing to see all of her hard work pay off and for her to become a key player of our team,” O’Scannlain says
Daskalos and the Crusaders will be heading to Idaho this weekend for the Nike Cross Regional Event. For more information on sports and stories check out Jesuithsmedia and www.jesuitnews.com.
