West Hartford’s Hall High School boys and girls cross country teams are looking forward to a competitive season.

By Fox Mace. Photos by Craig Rosenberg

The first weekend in September always marks the start of a three-season-long endeavor for the Hall Cross Country and Track Program. Boys and girls who have been running day in and day out over the past summer once again step into fall and onto the course to put their fitness to the test for the first time in months.

Hall Boys pre-race huddle. Northwest Catholic, Avon, Hall Trimeet. Sept. 10, 2024. Photo credit: Craig Rosenberg

This year Hall brings out an impressive 132 boys including 31 freshman. At the top end, Hall’s Ben Lewis, Donnovan Connole,Thijs Doot, and Nathan Yingling are returning as seasoned veterans who are experienced at running near the front of races. All four have proven themselves as premier distance runners last outdoor season with 3200m records of 9:41, 9:45, 9:45, and 9:53, respectively.

Four people, however, do not make a varsity team and replacing the graduating seniors is not an easy task. Fox Mace, and Hikari Mizuno both showed promise last year during XC, running under 18 minutes in the 5K as sophomores. Along with them is one of the team captains, Johnny Dewander, who has shown massive improvement over his years running with the team shaving off 13 minutes over 3 seasons of XC. Yet the biggest wildcard is Jonah Schulman who has had dominant performances over indoor and outdoor track and is switching over from last year’s state champion soccer program in hopes of helping the Hall cross country team’s effort to make New Englands.

Hall coaching staff. Northwest Catholic, Avon, Hall Trimeet. Sept. 10, 2024. Photo credit: Craig Rosenberg

Along with the many changes towards the top end of the team Hall also has brought in a new member of the coaching staff – Angie Rafter – who will be joining Everett Hackett, Jeff Billing, and Michael Lage. Rafter, a competitive in-state athlete, has joined the team as a distance specialist for the fall season. She holds impressive times of 15:48.64 over 5000m and 33:22.88 for 10,000m making her a valuable and experienced addition to the coaching staff. 

With many moving pieces on the Hall team the first duel meet with Avon and Northwest Catholic became all the more interesting. Just three days prior to the race Avon performed well at the 43rd Stratton Brook XC Invitational and it became clear that they would pose a real challenge to Hall.

On Tuesday Sept. 10, the day of the race, the three teams lined up for a 3.1 mile competition with Hall’s seven-year duel meet streak on the line. Hall would have to run without Lewis and Doot as neither were ready for the first effort of the season. From the gun, Avon’s William Lancaster and Brahm Bulow took the race out with Hall’s Connole in a tight pursuit of Avon’s top athletes. Behind the lead pack, Yingling and Mace followed Avon’s No. 3 and No. 4 athletes. Over the next lap of the course Yingling moved up to the first pack while a struggling Mace slipped back and was caught by Schulman and Dewander. 

Hall boys front pack. Northwest Catholic, Avon, Hall Trimeet. Sept. 10, 2024. Photo credit: Craig Rosenberg

As the top athletes rounded the last corner it was unclear which team had pulled ahead over the final kilometer. Coming across the line first was Connole in a time of 16:31, followed by Avon’s first athlete, Brahm Bulow. To finish the top three, Yingling – with a strong final mile – finished in third in 16:52. Following Yingling, a field of Avon runners pushed to the line claiming fourth, fifth, and sixth place; William Lancaster, Christopher Campell, and Andrew Kessler scored a combined 15 points.

The rest of Hall’s scoring team filled in behind Avon. Dewander took another minute off of his personal record finishing in 17:13, and Schulman and Mace came to the line in 17:30 and 17:49. Avon’s final scoring athlete finished in 11th which ended up leaving the two teams in a deadlocked tie of 28-28. A cross country tie is decided by the head to head matchup of the team’s sixth man. For Avon that was William Nussom in 18:01 and for Hall Eliot Norwood finished in an impressive PR of 17:57. Norwood, who did not expect to affect the score, was the athlete that gave Hall the win by a slim 4-second margin.

Hall Girls post race. Northwest Catholic, Avon, Hall Trimeet. Sept. 10, 2024. Photo credit: Craig Rosenberg

The Hall girls, who were polled 10th in the state, also have high expectations for the 2024 season. The first Hall female finisher was Abigail Sanderson who is coming off of an impressive junior track season, running 5:09 in the mile last spring.

She finished in a time of 20:22 which allowed her to come in second place, 33 seconds behind Abigail Van Hoof of Avon. In fifth and sixth place, Claire Furia and Lucille Vargas finished in times of 21:30 and 21:37. With impressive openers to their sophomore seasons, both athletes find themselves in the top 10 sophomore girls in the state over 5K. Senior Katelyn Osba and sophomore Anya Mantripragada closed out Hall’s scoring members in 22:07 and 22:14.

Despite a strong performance from the Hall girls team, Avon was able to take the win in a final score of 23-32.

Both teams are looking forward to the upcoming season and adding crucial members to their already impressive scoring members. Hall’s Madeline Peterson will be working to join the team and looks to match her 2023 season where she finished in the top 50 athletes at the state open. On the boys side, Doot, and Lewis will improve the varsity team and will look to help the team qualify for New Englands.

A promising opening weekend for Hall’s Cross Country program is just the beginning as the runners have high expectations for what they can accomplish over the upcoming months leading up to championship racing.

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