Running side-by-side at Mar Vista Park, sisters Avital Eisenberg (’29) and Noa Eisenberg (’30) crossed the finish line together at their cross country meet. Avital Eisenberg has participated in middle school cross country for two years, and her younger sister, Noa Eisenberg, is now competing alongside her.
Their team competed in five meets, including the PBL Finals, where they came in second place Oct. 29. Avital Eisenberg and Noa Eisenberg said both of their running time noticeably decreased throughout the season, as she beat her personal record by a full minute.
“The first couple meets, we actually ran together — so we had the same pace for the first couple meets, so it was fun,” Avital Eisenberg said.”It brought us closer together. We had a lot of fun doing it because I was able to pace myself to her, and she was able to pace herself to me.”
The sisters said they both enjoyed bonding over a new interest in a different environment. Avital Eisenberg said she tried her best to be a good role model for her sister. She taught her running strategies, including breathing techniques.
“She showed me how to breathe while I was running,” Noa Eisenberg said. “At first, my breathing would be really uneven, and that would make it really hard for me to run. But then she was like, ‘You have to count your breathing,’ and she was breathing with me while we were running together. She’s showing me how to count how much I’m running and how much I’m exerting myself.”
Avital Eisenberg said she tried to set a good example by being a good teammate by motivating her when they were running. She also said she worked to maintain a healthy balance between giving constructive feedback and cheering her on.
“What I try to do is to act like a normal teammate, like I would to any other person on the team,” Avital Eisenberg said. “I’d act encouraging, but I’m also not going to overstep and be like, ‘You have to do this, you have to be better.’ I just try to set a very neutral boundary.”
Avital Eisenberg said through cross country, she had met one of her closest friends, Isabel Kromwyk (’29). This is their second year doing cross country together, and they have also become friends on and off the track.
“Avital is always really positive. She is super sweet, and she always encourages people,” Kromwyk said. “She has a great personality, like vibe going on, so it’s very encouraging to be around.”
Kromwyk said cross country is a challenging sport and having a good mindset is important. As eighth graders, Kromwyk and Avital Eisenberg said they try their best to set a good example for the younger students.
“We definitely try to give other sixth and seventh graders advice on what we do,” Kromwyk said. “We always try to be the first there to start doing warm up laps, encourage others to come to practice [and] always make sure we are positive so other people don’t get brought down.”
Along with Noa Eisenberg being a new student at Archer and a new runner, cross country has been the first sport she has ever participated in. She has enjoyed pushing herself in a supportive community and she said it has been amazing to see her time improvement each week.
“My third meet I felt really proud because I ran with Avital the entire time, and I was able to really keep up with her. I went down on my time so much because my first meet, I didn’t run with her at all, and I’m not proud of that time,” Noa Eisenberg said. “But then when I did end up running with her, I felt really proud because I was able to go forward so much just by being next to my sister and trying to keep pace with her.”
