The Kushner Cobras cross country team pushed itself to do better than ever before at the yeshiva league championship meet on Sunday, November 11 at Van Cortlandt Park.

Two years ago, Kushner didn’t have a team. This year, the boys team finished in third place, and was only five points removed from first (and two points away from second). Junior Mendel Dashevsky finished first overall with a time of 20:43, beating his previous time by 43 seconds.

“You get a really good feeling knowing that all your hard work pays off,” Dashevsky said.

Sophomore Maurice Korish finished sixth with a time of 21:54, while senior Aaron Shamsian (21:34) and sophomore Eli Novick (22:37) rounded out the top four for the Cobras.

All of Kushner’s girls ran personal record times. Junior captain Nava Chefitz broke 30 minutes for the first time in her running career (29:26). Sophomore Leah Rubinstein came in seventh (28:22) and Ellie Coopersmith finished 16th (31:53). The Kushner girls finished fourth on the day.

The weather was in the 40s throughout the race. Running in the cold, according to freshman Sammy Cohen, was “easier because the cold breeze was refreshing and made me feel more awake.”