Julian Franjieh Runs for the Cross Country Season

by Brenna McLaughlin

The fall sports season was out of the ordinary this year with football, cheerleading and volleyball unable to compete due to their high risk nature and all other sports being adjusted slightly to meet Covid-19 guidelines. One of the sports that was impacted greatly by these adjustments was cross country.

Cross country meets are traditionally set up so that every team that is competing in a certain race starts at the same time. This year, in order to maintain social distance, the races were set up so that one team would start the race and then the other team would start a few minutes later, to essentially stagger the teams. This proved a challenge for athletes to run their best because they were on the cross country course with no competition from outside their school.

In a normal year the Niskayuna boys and girls cross country teams would have a season filled with various dual meets and invitationals, with hopes for post season competition. This year was different. While they were still able to compete in dual meets, invitationals were off the table. The only postseason competition they were able to attend was the Suburban Council Championships, which served as the season ending meet in place of sectionals.

While these changes may have been unmotivating for some athletes, junior Julian Franjieh was able to push past these obstacles to produce a breakout season. He was undefeated in every dual meet and earned a new school record of 16:30.40 for the 5k at Iroquois Middle School. However, his biggest accomplishment was winning the boys Suburban Council Championship at SPAC in 15:17.22 for 3 miles. He was the first winner of this meet from Niskayuna in 29 years. This time is now the number three fastest all-time for Niskayuna athletes and it was done without any competition near him.

I asked Franjieh some questions to hear more about his thoughts on the 2020 season:

Brenna McLaughlin: How was this season different than previous seasons?

Julian Franjieh: I'd say besides masks, the way that meets were run was very different. Typically, my mentality was based off of if our race was before the other teams or after.

BM: How was running with a mask? Did you have to adjust your training because of it?

JF: Running with a mask wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Over the summer I didn’t do much about training wearing it, but fortunately during the season we only had to wear it at the beginning and end of our races.

BM: Did you find it hard to be competitive in your races without your competition right next to you?

JF: Absolutely. Running without the people that I planned on beating was definitely very difficult because if my race was before theirs I had nothing to base my efforts off of.

BM: What was your proudest accomplishment from this season?

JF: I’d say my proudest accomplishment was winning the Suburban Council Championships. It got to be my equivalent of sectionals.

BM: How did you stay motivated to train without any big invitationals or post season meets?

JF: The motivation came mostly from my goals for next year. I have a lot of things I want to accomplish and despite Covid, I still have chances to accomplish them.

BM: Being nominated for the Gatorade New York State Cross Country Runner of the Year is a very big accomplishment. What did it mean to you?

JF: It was honestly very surprising, I knew I had a great season but I did not think that I would get nominated.

After dealing with many different challenges this year, Franjieh’s success is well deserved. Hopefully he will continue to show off his speed during outdoor track season and next school year's cross country season.