Estes sets personal record
St. Joe’s women’s cross country senior captain Elaine Estes ran a personal record of 21:59.5 for her 6k race at Lehigh University’s Murray H. Goodman Campus. Estes set her collegiate-best time despite the unfavorable muddy course conditions.
Estes said a lot of preparation led up to her performance.
“Cross country is a sport where you have to just lay months and months of foundation ahead of where you want to perform your best, so for me this whole summer, starting after our spring track season, I have been running everyday,” Estes said.
Estes said one of her goals is to have the best performance of her career at the conference championship.
“This is our fourth year with our head coach [Melody O’Reilly],” Estes said. “This group of seniors has been with her from the beginning and it’s the first time in the program that there has been a group with her for all four years so now we’re deeper than we’ve been.”
Estes’ work ethic has not gone unnoticed by fellow senior captain Britton Gagliardi and Head Coach Melody O’Reilly.
“She’s a very determined and relaxed leader on the team and it is seen by the whole team,” Gagliardi said. “She definitely makes sure the whole team stays up to a high standard and that our training pays off.”
O’Reilly said Estes’ work ethic prepared her for the course’s poor conditions at Lehigh University.
“Estes is one of my higher mileage athletes who trains pretty long distances and pretty consistently, so she was prepared,” O’Reilly said. “We haven’t started our speed workouts yet, but she was already prepared strength-wise, which was what I think allowed her to do well in muddy conditions.”
Gagliardi said Estes is a respected leader on the team.
“She has a team-minded outlook going into a race,” Gagliardi said. “She is definitely one of the leading voices on the team and she always leads by example first.”
O’Reilly said that Estes’ regimented training has helped her become a great leader.
“I think this leadership stems from her Army Reservist background,” O’Reilly said. “Her first semester of college she actually went to basic training and I actually did not end up meeting her until the second semester, so she’s come a long way since then.”
Estes said all the captains bring a unique leadership style.
“We had four captains this year because of how big our team is,” Estes said. “Each of us brings something different to the team and in terms of what I bring, I think I bring an example of what to do day to day that equals performance.”
Throughout her career on the women’s cross country team, Estes said she has been influenced by former teammates.
“I had a friend reach out to me last week because she had heard about how the race went, so it’s cool to still have those relationships with past teammates and then also surreal being one of the older people on the team now and being able to be that for other people,” Estes said.
