Conard Girls Cross Country Team Makes History

The Conard High girls cross country team made history this season.

Indeed, the Chieftains girls team had never qualified for the New England Championships until this year, according to head coach Leslie Hadra.

“We’re riding high on making the history books,” Hadra said.

Virtually everything fell into place for Conard this season, as the Chieftains won the CCC West, placed third in the Class LL meet, fifth at the State Open and 16th at the New England Championships.

Not bad for a team that had just 23 girls on the squad, which is a nice showing, but far from the 40 or 50 runners that rival teams like Glastonbury and Simsbury attract annually.

“When [those programs] have an injury, they usually have someone to jump right in,” Hadra said.

Conard did not have that luxury. Varsity cross country races feature seven runners from every team, with the top five from each squad figuring in the immediate scoring.

“Our top five had to keep healthy all season,” Hadra said. “It was nerve-racking for all of us. We did not have the depth, which made it even more sweet to make the history books.

Conard had to overcome a disappointing early season loss to Simsbury at a dual meet, as well as a tough finish at the Stratton Brook Invitational.

But during the cross country season, while winning regular-season meets is nice, the ultimate goal is to peak for the end-of-the-season championships.

“They were disappointed after Stratton Brook [where they placed third behind Avon and Bristol Central],” Hadra said “I told them to look at the big picture. I knew we had big talent if we peaked at the right time. We had a lean team, so if I start running them into the ground early, we wouldn’t make it to the end of season. … We weren’t on anybody’s radar.”

But Conard was by the end of the year as the team was, in Hadra’s words, “able to get over the hump” and peak at the right time.

The following were the top seven runners on the team:

• Elizabeth Lagoy - a senior who set a new course record at the West Hartford Reservoir with a time of 19:17. She had a personal record at New Englands, placing 30th with a time of 18:46 on the 5K course. She was All-CCC and All-State. “She was our anchor,” Hadra said.  

• Shea Williams - a senior who also set a personal record at New Englands with a time of 19:30.  She was also All-CCC. Hadra said that Williams qualified individually for New Englands last year, but didn’t run as well as she wanted to. “This was a personal goal and also a team goal as well.” She placed 66th out of more than 250 runners to end her high school career.

• Randa Griffin - a senior who battled plantar fasciitis during the year. “She worked her way back and had the race of her life at New Englands,” hadra said. She finished in 19:48. Griffin was also all-conference this year.

• Alana Waggoner - another senior all-conference runner who battled injuries, she overcame a balky ankle to set a personal record at the state Class LL meet. Waggoner also ran well at New Englands, finishing in 20:47, just two seconds off her personal record.

• Margaret Byrne - a junior and one of next year’s captains, she set a personal record at New Englands with a time of 20:49.

• Olivia Bourquin - a senior who picked the right time to set a personal record - against Hall - with a time of 21:12. Bourquin was also the team “whip,” who motivated the Chieftains with her pre-race speeches. “It worked all season,” Hadra said. “I wanted them to be independent, and Liv would give the pre-race speech. It didn’t come from me. She took on that role and motivated her teammates.”

• Maggie Jamin - a junior who switched from soccer to cross country this year. She lettered and set a personal record at New Englands. Switching sports “is a hard thing to do as a high school student,” Hadra said. “You have a group of friends who you play with all those years. To have the courage to try a new sport and with a new group of peers, that’s really tough in high school. I always commend them. It’s hard to do and she did it beautifully.”

But as nice as the top performances were, Hadra said there was an even bigger thing that the girls will take with them.