Courtesy of Ryan Carney
Eight Stissing Mountain High School varsity cross-country runners have qualified for the state championships this weekend. Sophomore Violet Bliss will compete in the girls’ race while the boys’ team—seniors Jared and Maxwell Henggenstaller, Gabriel Hieter and Nicholas McPherson; juniors Nicolas Montoya and Maxwell Decker; and sophomore Daniel McPherson—is favored to win the small-school title.
This is only Stissing Mountain’s second year with a cross-country team. At one point the Bombers were ranked ninth among all New York schools, even though they’re in Class D, the category for those with the smallest enrollments (254 students or fewer).
How did the Pine Plains runners get so fast, so fast?
Coach Ryan Carney said they had a strong debut season, with Bliss, Decker and Jared Heggenstaller qualifying for the 2022 state meet. That inspired the group to embark on a rigorous training regimen in pursuit of the state championship this year. “All of them ran more than most high school kids are willing to run,” Carney said. “They ran throughout the winter, throughout the spring, throughout the summer.”
Last winter Decker began running mornings before daylight and again after school, according to Carney. In the summer he was running about 80 miles a week, while Jared Heggenstaller logged 310 miles in August alone.
Carney, who was a runner at Manhattanville College and still competes in marathons, took over the team after last year’s coach, Samantha Lydon, left the position to have a baby. Besides coaching cross-country, Carney is a guidance counselor who has been at Stissing Mountain High for seven years.
He cited his runners’ dedication as a key to their success. “This is what I really preach: The only way to get better as a distance runner is consistency over months and years, not days and weeks,” Carney said. He praised his team for their positive attitude: “These kids are incredible. They’re great students, they are so good to each other. The parents have been unbelievable. I’m very lucky.”
The Pine Plains team will travel on Nov. 10 for the championship races on Nov. 11 at Vernon Verona Sherrill High School, in the village of Vernon, between Utica and Syracuse.
The trip to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) meet comes after a series of stunning performances over the last month.
Courtesy of Ryan Carney
On Oct. 4, the boys’ team placed fourth at the Burnt Hills Invitational, losing only to Ithaca, Saratoga and Monroe-Woodbury—all Class A schools (815 students or more). At the Mid-Hudson Athletic League XC Championship on Oct. 26, Bliss came in second among 118 competitors, while the Bomber boys had five runners finish in the top 12 in a field of 209. Decker covered the 5,000 meters in 16:05.1—only .5 of a second behind the winner. Daniel McPherson was third and his brother Jared 12th, while twins Maxwell and Jared Heggenstaller finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
In their most recent meet, on Nov. 4 in Warwick, the boys won the NYSPHSAA Section IX title, securing their invitation to the state tourney. Bliss also qualified with her performance that day.
Four runners will graduate this year: the Heggenstaller twins, Nicholas McPherson and team captain Gabriel Hieter. Carney noted, however, that next season he will have a talented core to build around: Decker, Montoya, Bliss and Daniel McPherson. The coach said that after the state meet he plans to take some of his runners into classrooms, hoping to inspire younger students to take up the sport.
Carney has entered the boys team and Bliss in a regional meet sponsored by Nike that will be held at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls on Nov. 25. From that, he said, “the top two teams and the top five individuals go, on Nike’s dime, to Portland, Oregon, for the national cross-country meet.”