Juniors Anthony Palma and Stefan Karkuff stand on the side of the cross country course, itching to return to the team as the rest of the men’s cross country team runs by.

Both Karkuff and Palma have been sidelined for the first half of the year because of hip flexor injuries that happened before the season. Palma’s injury occurred last May after a race for the men’s track and field team, and Karkuff suffered his injury in July after waking up sore one day from running. Both runners have been working toward fixing the problems and getting back on track.

“After [the hip flexor], I took a lot of time off,” Palma said. “I was done for the track season. I started running in the summertime, and it started all over again. I went to go see a doctor before I came back for school and got an MRI right before school. I’m still battling the injury.”

The runners look to make their return to competition in the next couple of weeks. Palma was scheduled to compete last weekend, but he decided to rest another week. He is expected to run his first meet in the next two weeks. Karkuff said he plans to run this weekend at the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championships in Rochester, N.Y., as long as his leg holds up the rest of this week.

“It’s somewhat of a fragile injury,” Karkuff said. “It’s kind of dangerous, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

Along with visits to doctors, Karkuff and Palma have been constantly cross training. On the days they aren’t able to run, the runners work to strengthen themselves with stationary bike workouts, swimming and weight lifting. The runners said they have made great progress since the start of their rehabilitation assignments.

“My leg is holding up all right,” Karkuff said. “For the past two weeks I started running with the team doing more intense workouts. My endurance has held up very well. I’m somewhat out of shape, so I have to hit the workouts hard to get back in shape.”

Senior captain Curt Bell said Karkuff and Palma have been improving during their cross training.

“They’re both well on their way to getting themselves healthy,” Bell said. “We’re hoping they’re as close to full strength as they can be in the next couple weeks.”

Karkuff and Palma both had standout seasons last year. Karkuff received first-team all-conference honors with three top-10 finishes, coming in sixth at the Empire 8 Championships. Palma earned all-state and all-Empire 8 honors, finishing in Ithaca’s top seven in each of his six races and placing seventh at the Empire 8 Championships. Palma said he hopes his return can yield results similar to past performances.

“I would love to be part of the top runners,” Palma said. “The injury is just really weighing me down. As far as this season, it’s hard to tell [how I’ll perform] because I haven’t been training as hard as I had been last year.”

In their absence, Bell said other runners have stepped up to take control.

“Instead of the team hanging their heads, a lot of the other guys like Tyler Gustafson, John Davis and Daniel Craighead realized they have to step it up,” Bell said. “It’s motivated the team to train that much harder.”

Bell said with the postseason nearing, having Palma and Karkuff return will help the team.

“They are some of the better runners on the team,” Bell said. “We can only hope they’re at the same form as they were last year.”

Men's Race - 8K - Hamilton