Cross Country, as a sport, dates back to Rugby College’s first Crick Run back in 1883. In present day, the Hillsborough High School Boys Cross Country Team has 28 athletes continuing this tradition, along with the 440,000 other high schoolers around the world. Nine races and 50Ks (31 miles) later, Coach Eric Rosenthal and Coach Olivia Haas guided the boys through the 2024-2024 Cross Country Season. The boys ended a strong season with sophomore Luke Sudol finishing with a 5k time of 16.57 at the Last Chance Invitational, officially placing him in the top 20 runners for Cross Country in HHS history.
Freshman runner, Nishaant Anand with a 5k personal record of 23:24 said he hopes to get to JV and then varsity and enjoys running because of the scenery changes and meeting new people. Freshman Maxwell Graham (21:50) adds that eating food and snacks after each meet is the best part.
Freshman Trilochan Janakiraman (21:10) shares a similar opinion on running. “The thing I like most about running in Cross Country is being able to run with everybody on the team. Personally. I don’t like running by myself. It’s super boring, like I really like running with my friends,” Janakiraman said. He also mentioned his favorite memory as getting a new PR (personal record) at the Skyland Conference even though he said he knows he could have done better.
According to Junior Chase Crawford, Sophomore year is usually the hardest year. He said freshmen get easier practices, and due to their inexperience, it takes a while to get used to.
Despite this difficulty, sophomores like Sudol (16:54) maintain their varsity spot. His goal is getting into the top ten in the state, after beating his previous goal of bringing his time down to 16:40 in the Skyland Conference and later bringing it down to 16:17.80 at the NJSIAA Sectionals.
Sudol talks about his favorite parts of the sport. “Definitely the laser tag at the end. And the practice is always hard, but I guess the accomplishment of having a good meet after all the hard work you put in.”
Sophomore Hamza Haider (28:55) is also setting goals. He said his fondest memory of Cross Country was “finally getting under 30 minutes in 5k,” and is now trying to get under 25 minutes.
In addition, some Juniors like Junior Richard Guhl (21:19) said he wants to get a better time, while having as much fun as possible. His favorite memory was almost getting caught walking by coach Rosenthal and enjoys running with friends most during Cross Country. Crawford (18.10), said, “I like the work aspect of it. I like going in and then just like running everyday knowing I’m working towards something.” He said his goals are to stay top three on the team and get solidly under 18 minutes in the 5k.
As their season comes to a close, the three seniors on Hillsborough High School’s Cross Country team share record-breaking memories. Senior Mathew Goldman (18:24) said he particularly cherishes getting a varsity time of 19:55 by one second, while Senior Liam Schwartz (20:36) recalls his first race Junior year, when he beat his sophomore personal record by two minutes. Senior Nihar Tantry (17:25) recalls the moment he broke 18 minutes for the first time.
“It felt really good,” he said.
The Seniors also share special memories. “Cross Country is something where I can socialize with other people like my friends and it’s something where I can push myself to improve,” Schwartz said.
Tantry said his favorite part is the team vibes.
“I love running with my team, and I love being able to talk to my friends the whole time,” he said.
