West Hartford’s Hall High School cross country team has more than 100 members and is off to a great start for the season.

By Eliot Norwood. Photos by Craig Rosenberg

The start of September signalled the start of the season for the Hall Cross Country Program. The past few weeks, runners who had been training the whole summer have finally stepped to the line and raced against local schools in smaller dual meets as well as bigger invitational races against schools from all over New England.

Over 100 strong and with 28 new freshmen, the Hall Boys Cross Country Team has consistently been one of the top programs in the state, and although the varsity lineup looks different now that a very talented class of seniors has graduated, this year is no exception. Currently ranked No. 7 in the state, they are led by senior Jonah Schulman who ran 9:18 in the 3200 last year and is the top returner on the team from last year.

Hall Boys Prerace Huddle. Conard, Avon, Hall, Tri-meet. Sept. 2, 2025. Photo Credit: Craig Rosenberg

Not far behind is senior Fox Mace who has consistently been the number two runner in the early part of this season with junior Alex Martin-Casas right on his heels. Both are building on successful outdoor track seasons this past spring and have both run significant personal bests to start off the season. Also in the mix at the top is Nathan Yingling who was one of the top runners as a sophomore but missed almost his entire junior year to injury.

A varsity cross country team needs seven runners, however, and so far, those final spots have been a mix of seniors Eliot Norwood and Max Prince, both of whom have some experience running varsity from last year, as well as up-and-coming juniors Samuel Chaparro and Elias Miettinen who have gotten significantly faster during the offseason and have both run significant personal bests to start off the season. 

In addition to the myriad changes to the varsity lineup, Hall has also brought in a new coach, Ted Farah, who will be joining the existing coaching staff of Jeff Billing, Michael Lage, and Everett Hackett. Farah ran cross country in high school for Danbury in the late 1970s and early 80s and has decades of experience coaching cross country making him a very experienced addition to the coaching staff.

Hall coaching staff. Photo credit: Craig Rosenberg

Hall opened the season on Sept. 2 with a 5K against Avon and cross-town rival Conard at the lightning fast Fisher Meadows in Avon. It was a close battle between Avon and Hall with both teams being ranked top 10 in the state but Hall was able to get a close victory through their superior depth moving up well throughout the course of the race. 

A first place finish at the UHart Invitational 3K at Keeney Park in Hartford with Jonah Schulman earning the individual victory  as well as a tri-meet vs. Farmington and Bloomfield at Winding Trails would follow with Fox Mace earning the individual victory. All across the board, there were some amazing improvements with most runners improving significantly over the course of the two races. Many of the freshmen, most of whom had never run before in their lives, had drastic improvements with some of them running as much as 4 or 5 minutes faster than their previous personal bests.

Hall Boys Race Start. UHart Invitational. Sept. 6, 2025. Photo Credit: Craig Rosenberg

The first big test of the season would come in the Manchester Invitational at Derryfield Park in New Hampshire, one of the harder 5K courses in the region and with some of the best teams in New England. The meet is divided into separate races with the freshman and the majority of the rest of the team running in modified 2-mile course with the No. 8-14 runners and the top seven runners racing in a JV and varsity 5K respectively.

The freshman started off the day with a respectable 13th place on the brutal course but in the JVC 2-mile race, the team was able to get five runners in the top seven of the race and win in a landslide. The JVB runners continued the success on the brutal 5K course with a tight back of four in the top 13 and was able to win its race comfortably. The varsity team then finished off the day with a sixth place finish against some of the best teams in New England with only a 35-second spread between their first and fifth runners. 

Hall looks to finish off the regular season undefeated and prepare for the postseason with a quad meet at on their home course and a tri-meet meet at Stratton Brook Park in Simsbury before competing in the conference championships in a little under two weeks on Oct. 14 at Wickham Park in Manchester, CT. If they can stay healthy and keep improving, they will be contenders to very highly and potentially win the conference.

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