High School Students Making Run to Boston

By Marisa Kaplita

A team of students are heading to Boston this weekend, but they are not taking any easy route. The 12-member team is running from New Haven to Cambridge, Mass., as part of the 194 mile Ragnar Relay Race.  This is a physically demanding race run mostly by teams of adults, but the BHS students are up the challenge. 

These students, nicknamed, "Fairly Athletic Super Team" (FAST) will be just one of the over 200 teams participating.  This will be Branford High school’s second year participating in the race after winning the high school division of last year’s race. 

This year's race kicked off Friday morning at Lighthouse Point in New Haven. Runners made their way through Branford throughout the morning. Ragnar is the largest overnight relay race series in the country. Nationwide, there are 12 Ragnar events, each between 180 and 200 miles.

The team is made up of both freshmen and sophomore students.  The sophomores are Stephen Perrotti, Robby Hacker, Vin Roca, Jess Parker, Chase Fowler, Abby Raynor, Amanda Chomicz, Eric Fischer, Dan Parsons (who lives in Avon, CT), and Alex Muniz.  The freshmen team members are Pat Laske and Travis Charlow.  All members have a history of running or are on the

Each team member will run three different legs during the course of the race, and each leg can be between three and eight miles over various landscapes.  Each teammate needs to be physically prepared to run their 10 to 20 miles during the course of the  24-hour-race.  Most members started to prepare through school track meetings or by running on their own.  Stephen Perrotti, the team captain said, "Everybody on the team has been intensely training for this race.”

One runner, Abby Raynor said, "When I got asked to join the Ragnar team, I started training in January.  I started going on three-mile runs and gradually worked my way up to seven-mile runs, since I knew I would be running at least six miles in the actual race.” Other group members who have also been practicing for this race since the beginning of the year have been preparing themselves with five- to 10-mile runs.

As well as physically preparing for the race, the team members created custom made pinnies and t-shirts to create team spirit and get everyone mentally psyched for the big day.

The team has many aspirations for this race, one runner Robby Hacker said, "Our team hopes to win the high school division and beat last year’s time as well.”  And if anything, this team will come out of this with a great experience as well as some new formed friendships.  These twelve students will get to run through the New England county side and gain memories that they will take with them forever.

The team is full of students that love to run and are ready to meet the challenges of the Ragnar Race.

"We are running this race because we can," Perotti said. "For the sophomores this might be the last chance to run the Ragnar Race, but hopefully the freshmen and middle schoolers will take our place and we can start training them.”  The team hopes to keep the spirit of BHS participation in the Ragnar race for generations to come.

Marisa Kaplita is a sophomore at Branford High School. She is the editor of the student newspaper,The Buzz. You can contact her at thebuzzeditor@gmail.com.