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Cross country champion Brennan Baryza (’27) has shown incredible speed, soaring up the ranks to become the fastest runner on the girls XC team in just her first year at Robinson. This is her second year doing cross country, as she previously ran with her school’s XC team in seventh grade, and then started again this fall season.
“My parents always said I would enjoy running, and once I started it was hard to stop. I like running with a team because it forces you to run so you can get to the part where it’s fun, and when you’re not in shape it’s not fun,” Baryza said.
The team has a rigorous training schedule including team practices five days a week morning or afternoon. They also dedicate one day over the weekend for solo training. During the week, the runners power through hard workouts at Picnic Island.
“When we work out at Picnic Island, we have to do these 800 sprints, it’s sandy, it’s grassy, it’s difficult and that’s when most excuses come up and pushing through those really showed me that I’m able to overcome these obstacles and prepared me for races,” Baryza said.
Along with cross country, Baryza balances the responsibilities of being an IB student and participating in the marching band. She proved her dedication to the sport by attending every practice. When she was limited by marching band on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she personally went out of her way to schedule solo sessions in the morning before school with XC coach, Mark Altamari.
“Altamari always makes sure we’re growing and doing what we need to do to improve. He’s the one who told me when you settle into a slow pace [on races] you can tell yourself you’re going to speed up later but you’re really not, and you’re going to stay there. Starting out faster on races has been really helpful for my times,” Baryza said.
While it took some years of cross-country to get to her level, Baryza progressed incredibly fast.
“In the summer, I couldn’t run three miles without stopping and then when I got to four miles, I was so happy to do it at 8’15 pace. My last mile was 6’30. It’s crazy looking at the improvement you can have,” said Baryza.
Many leaders on the team admired Baryza’s startling improvement and were inspired by her growth as a runner.
“Starting from the summer she was running the same amount as the team and summer’s when most people have other engagements like vacations but you could really see her commitment. Then at the beginning of the school year, she got really into it and when she started racing you could just see her potential, and it was really cool seeing that happen,” said Bryn White (’25), captain of the girls cross country team.
With the cross country team being at the small size of six girls, her enthusiastic viewpoint during races is also enjoyed by her teammates.
“Brennan is an incredible teammate and she has a lot of integrity. She just gets along with everyone and is really fast. She has a great work ethic because at the beginning of the summer, we were all out of shape but she worked really hard and now she’s really fit and can run four miles in like 27 minutes,” said fellow teammate Reid Taggart (’26).
Baryza hopes to finish the season strong and will continue on to join the soccer team and potentially the track team. She’s also decided to persist in her cross-country career all four years of high school and run in college if, with a very likely possibility, she gets recruited.
“If anyone else wants to try it [xc] it’s just about breaking past barriers. Once you’re there, it’s really cool to just see how fast you can go,” Baryza said.
