Cancilla leads MCLA Cross Country team to a strong fall

By Jaclyn Candelet, MCLA Sports Information

Anthony Cancilla is the top runner on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Trailblazers men's cross country team.  Cancilla, a junior, is a local athlete from Pittsfield, Massachusetts who attended St. Joseph High school from the 8^th to 12^th grade.

Influenced by his seventh grade math teacher, Cancilla decided to make the switch from soccer to cross country when he entered high school. It also helped when the captain of the team approached him and told him he should come out. "I played a bunch of different sports for short periods of time," said Cancilla. He played soccer, lacrosse, tennis and participated in track and field.

Being a local athlete and running throughout the county, Cancilla should have a leg up on all his teammates and opponents when it comes to race day at home, but, unfortunately MCLA does not have a home course. The closest course that Cancilla does run and ran in high school is Williams College, which is run at Mount Greylock High School.

According to Cancilla, each course has its advantages and disadvantages. Some courses are flat.  Some have sharp turns.  Others have hills. Hills tend to be a runners weakness, but not Cancillas. Training on the hilly streets of North Adams, hills are his strength. "Most of the people I pass are while I'm going uphill," said Cancilla, "I train to love hills." It doesn't bother Cancilla that he doesn't have home course advantage because he stated the entire sport is a mental challenge.

Cancilla admits that he doesn't get sick of running races but he gets exhausted and it's hard to carry on. He then closes his eyes for a split second, meditates [hoping not to fail] and trucks through the last few miles, but the last few miles aren't the hardest. "The first mile there are so many people you don't feel like you are doing anything you're just part of the crowd. The second mile is the toughest," said Cancilla, "At that point all the pre-race anxiety is gone but then there is a chance you went out to fast and burnt yourself out. The third mile you pick up your pieces and just run."

Like most athletes, Cancilla has a superstitious side to him. The night before a race he sleeps in his running shorts, he listens to the same songs and has a particular way he shakes out. There are times that his routine gets thrown off, but he tries to forget about it and focus on the race.

Anthony Cancilla runs to race. This past weekend when the Trailblazers traveled to the Green Mountain Invitational, Cancilla placed third with a time of 27:14. The Trailblazers ended up winning the Invitational.  Earlier this season, Cancilla won the Vermont Tech Invitational.

 You can catch Cancilla trucking up hills, taking sharp turns and sprinting to the finish line this coming weekend when the Trailblazers head to Westfield State for the MASCAC Championship.