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Members of Rowland Hall's cross country team, fall 2024
Cross Country: Fall 2024 Season Recap

Head Coach Mark Oftedal
Assistant Coach Laura Johnson
Assistant Coach Jake Colangelo

In 18 years as coach of Rowland Hall cross country, this season found me with the fewest returning team members and perhaps the highest number of newcomers at one time I’ve ever had. At the conclusion of our first week of practice, just before school began, I was left with the impression we’d not be able to advance through the season’s phased training progression, which I’ve always attempted to maintain each year. But our 13 team members proved me wrong just a few weeks later.

What soon unfolded was remarkable, and remained so throughout the season. Our four returning team members—seniors Carolina Corcoran and Kendall Kanarowski, and juniors Dylan Johnson de Lacy and Amelie Tan—together with junior newcomer Fanni Ventilla and eight new ninth graders, quickly coalesced into a focused, dedicated, and determined training machine! No time was wasted as our newly added ninth graders, Jia Anyan, Brooke Greenberg, Miles Kiburtz, Hector Licea Morales, Henrik Messick, Leah Middleton, Henley Pritchett, and Songtsen Sok-Choekore, enthusiastically embraced the training alongside our returning team members. This “I belong” behavior—now so evident at practice, but which often requires some coaxing and reassurance from coaches as we move from safe practice sessions to lining up against nearly 200 peers to race a 5K—was surprisingly intact.

And, as if this displayed individual self-confidence for the task at hand was not gift enough out of the gate, this team came equipped with a startlingly impressive gift for supporting their teammates! Sincere encouragement and compassion for each other’s efforts all season long was in abundance. This creation of a nurturing environment—both at practice sessions and contests—I am certain was responsible for each team member’s times getting faster with each opportunity to race, and with each team member’s desire to race not just for themselves but for their team. By season’s end our results expressed this: At the Region 17 championships, just 24 seconds separated our first four scoring boys, whereas at the Bob Firman Invitational, the spread was four minutes. The girls’ team advanced to state by finishing first at region, and a week later raced to the best team-wide performance of the year, placing fifth overall in the 2A classification.

The Friday following state, we gathered around a fire in Millcreek Canyon to celebrate individual and team successes. The 2024 cross country team’s awards were presented to:

  • Carolina Corcoran and Henrik Messick: Coaches’ Choice Award
  • Brooke Greenberg and Henley Pritchett: Most Valuable Award
  • Amelie Tan and Hector Licea Morales: Most Improved Award

Eagerness abounds, knowing all 13 cross country team members will be on the track team this spring! My heart is not yet heavy, knowing at the end of that spring season I’ll need to say farewell to our seniors, Carolina Corcoran and Kendall Kanarowski, but for now, I’m excited we will all be together again very soon, training and racing.

For those who wish to peruse our team’s results—and especially take note of ninth grader Brooke Greenberg’s impressive multiple first-place accomplishments this season, including a 2A state championship—please follow these links:

Fall 2024 Team Members:
Jia Anyan
Carolina Corcoran
Brooke Greenberg
Dylan Johnson de Lacy
Kendall Kanarowski
Miles Kiburtz
Hector Licea Morales
Henrik Messick
Leah Middleton
Henley Pritchett
Songtsen Sok-Choekore
Amelie Tan
Fanni Ventilla