The college cross country season in the metropolitan area got off when Fordham University conducted its annual invitational meet for Division I, Division II, Division III and junior college athletes in order for their coaches to see the capabalities of their athletes. There was one race broken down into scoring for each of the men and one for the women.
After the scoring was broken down, Quesnel Senatus, a senior at St. Francis College of downtown Brooklyn recorded a time of 34:21.91, which earned him 62nd place in a field of 70 scoring individuals for Division I colleges.
Michael Turi’s seventh place finish for Fordham University led the Rams to a team 69 points and seventh place in the team standings behind run-a-way Navy, who swept the first five places for Division I colleges.
And a decent performance was turned in by Senatus, whose farther Senatus Sr. played baseball in his native land of Haiti and his mother Mariana was a product of her baseball team in the Dominican Republic. The current St. Francis College senior thus became the first person to compete in the harrier sport or track from the family.
“My father talks to me about the determination one needs to have in any sport,” said Senatus.
The runner’s father migrated to the United States during the 1970s.
In each sport an athlete goes into, that athlete has a certain amount of effort that has to be put into in order for him to succeed. The student athlete takes advice from his father for each meet in which he participates.
During the winter, the college student compete on its indoor track team and then moves over to the outdoor track in spring. His specialties are the 400 and 800 meters-the middle distance events. He is in his second year of running cross country. His personal best time at this writing is 35 minutes.
“Van Cortland Park is a course very difficult to run on,” he added. “Last weekend marked my fourth or fifth time running here. It is very challenging with many hills but running down hill is a bit easier.”
Track has always been his passion but he also played football and ran at Kellenberg High School in Long Isand.
