Cross country is a fall sport for girls and boys at HSMSE that involves running outdoors on courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass.  Races for freshmen are 1.5 miles and last 10-15 minutes. For other grades the races are 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) long and last 20-25 minutes. Freshmen interested in track & field should run one season of cross country beforehand.

Most track athletes join cross country their freshman year to develop their overall strength and endurance, build bonds with their teammates, and develop the time management skills they will need to be a successful athlete at HSMSE.

Track & Field is more than 20 different competitive events that include short sprints, long runs, jumps over hurdles and crossbars, and throwing of weights and other implements. Most are events seen in the Olympics. You are free to try every event but will eventually specialize in two or three. At HSMSE there is indoor track in the winter (mid-November to early March) and outdoor track in the spring (early March to early June).

Generally, five practices or competitions per week, for a total of ten to twelve hours per week.

The Cross country team practices five days per week from 3:30pm to 5:30pm weekdays near school or 10am to 12pm Saturday mornings at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. We have ten competitions ("meets") during our season, some on weekdays but most are on Saturdays.  All meets will take place at Van Cortlandt Park.  Students are expected to stay for the entire meet, usually about 4 hours, to run their individual races and to support their teammates.

The Track & Field team practices three (winter) or four (spring) weekdays per week from 3:30pm to 5:30pm, either in school, nearby at Riverbank State Park or the Armory Track & Field Center, or at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. One other day per week is usually a track meets that either last two hours (weekday meets in the spring only) or six hours (weekend meets in winter and spring).

At first this seems like a huge time commitment especially for serious HSMSE students with long commutes. However, every year eighty or more students make this time investment and still maintain good or excellent grades. If you're considering joining us and this worries you, contact Coach Henning who will connect you with current team members and assist you with addressing your parents' specific concerns.

We ask parents to pay for their child’s uniforms, approximately $90, plus a team fee of $20 each season. That uniform will last many years. Second-season athletes get a team warmup jacket and pants with a similar cost.  

If you need financial assistance, these items will be provided to each athlete free of cost and the team fee can be waived. Shoes can also be provided—just ask Coach Henning. The generous support of team parents and the PTA makes this possible.

Each season we ask parents of athletes to make donations for our costs (about $6000 per season) beyond what the PTA provides. Some famliies are not able to assist, so we ask everyone to give what they are able to. Everyone on the team gets the same team equipment, attire,  and opportunities.

Many think that it's best to get settled in their new school before taking on a commitment like a sports team. 

Every fall twenty freshmen find that the opposite is true. Cross country is how they get settled. When they arrive the first day they already have sixty friends and a teacher (coach) they know well. As they face academic challenges they can turn to the seniors, juniors, and sophomores who they already know for advice--connections that other freshmen don't have. Lastly, they find that two hours of practice after school helps them relax and focus on their studies once they are home.

Although we recommend fall cross country for track runners, winter of freshman year is also a fine time for jumping and throwing athletes to begin. That's when we have access to the most coaching and best facilities for track & field. By the spring season we assume most athletes have developed their basic event skills.

We have had many seniors say how badly they wished they had started as a freshman. Although they are free to, we have not had freshmen drop the team due to academic problems.

Fall cross country training lays the foundation for intense winter and spring track & field training. You will learn how to run efficiently, how to train to get faster, and how to manage your study time, your sleep and your nutrition. You'll also make a lot of friends. These are all things that you will need to be successful in track.

70% of the cross country team also runs track, so they start the winter season in great shape and are less prone to injury. People who join track without preparation will feel behind in every workout and are at risk for injury because track training starts at a high level from the first day.

Freshman in cross country race 1.5 miles, which is 10 to 14 minutes depending on your speed. Training runs are often shorter. Few people are comfortable running that distance when they join, but within a few weeks find it easy. In the history of the team, perhaps 1 in 100 athletes were never able to run that distance.

That is OK, but be aware that the August practices are critical to new athletes and weaker applicants have the best chance of making the team if they can attend the first practice and all those thereafter. 

The PSAL required nine practices before an athlete can race so late starters typically must sit out one or more meets.

The first day of school in September is the last day that athletes can begin their tryout in the fall.

Cross Country: You’re welcome to watch our practices but be aware that after some initial warmups we generally run into the woods for specific workouts. It’s shady and cooler there.  Parents are welcome to all meets.

Indoor Track: The Armory Track & Field Center is open only to athletes and their coaches during practice hours. Parents are welcome at all meets.

Outdoor Track: Our various practice locations are generally outside and open to the public. Parents are welcome at all meets.

Club teams have many advantages:

• there's a high level of coaching and competition

• there are more chances to be exposed to college scouts and coaches

There are disadvantages too:

• they are expensive and often involve travel

• they have inflexible schedules unmoored to the academic calendar

• their benefit in college recruiting is wildly overstated, at least in the experience of HSMSE student-athletes over two decades.

• they isolate the athlete, rather than connect them, to their high school's social community.

• they pressure young athletes to specialize, to the detriment of the athlete's physical and emotional development. Club coaches are passionate about their athletes, teams and sports, but their advice too often is colored by the need to maintain a viable business.

School teams at HSMSE have their advantages:

• their coach is a teacher in the school or is closely tied to it

• the fundamental mission of the teams are educational: the  physical and character development of the athletes and healthy socialization and leadership development, not achieving prominence, upholding reputation, or self-promotion.

• they connect the athete to classmates in all grades, freshman through senior. This provides unique opportunities for younger students to get  tutoring and guidance and when older, provide mentoring.

• the competition is also at the highest level. The Public School Athletic League is the largest school sports league in the US, and HSMSE athletes routinely face atheltes from the largest and best-coached school programs in the country right here in New York.

• The track & field teams, for one, train at world-class facilities: the Nike Track & Field Center at The Armory in Washington Heights, and Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island. Other HSMSE sports have good-to-excellent facilities at CCNY and elsewhere that vary by sport.

• They are free, although are well-resourced thanks to generous donations to the school's PTA. Competitions are almost always in New York City.

There are disadvantages here too:

• Leaving a club team can be disruptive to established friendships for athletes and parents alike.

• Leaving a club sport entirely for one the few choices at HSMSE can seem to render years of training "a waste".  However this notion begs a re-examination for the reasons for sports participation at all, and misses the benefits that a fresh start in a new sport can offer. Good athletes in a new sport will make use of their current skills in new and unexpected ways. Case in point: one of our pole vaulters was fully devoted to Taekwondo in middle school, and took up pole vaulting at HSMSE. In two years he's become the PSAL's  top sophomore of all time. The first sport enabled the second. Children are highly adaptable--especially good athletes.

• HSMSE athletes don't get the individual attention that some club athletes (and their parents) are accustomed to. Coaches work for the Dept. of Education and that, too, colors how they work with athletes and parents.

Every child's situation coming in to HSMSE is unique. If your child is on a club team currently and would like to see how school sports can fit into that, contact Coach Henning. The school has twenty years of experience placing its academically and athletically gifted students in the best possible colleges and athletic programs, and we will gladly share that experience with you so that you can make the best decision.

Cross Country: Coach Henning will suggest next steps for freshmen who do not make the team. One option is to join the team's Flight Crew. These are team assistants who help us do everything we do. Another is to try out for the Indoor Track team in early October for the season which begins in mid-November. 

Returning athletes who don't make the qualifying time: Keep coming to practice. There will be further opportunities to tryout, although you may not race until you fully qualify. Determination will always be rewarded.

Indoor Track: Come back the following season. Weight training is great preparation, as is stair running and vertical jumping so consider doing that until then. Ask Coach Henning for ideas that will fit your particular situation.