Distance learning

Connecticut’s top runners exploring all opportunities to face elite competition during pandemic-altered season

The last time two of the country’s best high school distance runners got a chance to race against each other was on the Conard High track back in March.

It was an unofficial 2-mile race between Manchester’s Aidan Puffer and Conard’s Gavin Sherry, paced by Olympian Donn Cabral, set up after the New Balance national indoor track championships in which they were both scheduled to compete was canceled due to the coronavirus.

Now it’s uncertain whether the two will be able to race against each other for the rest of the year because the fall cross country season has been shortened and regionalized, with large invitationals and state championships canceled because of the pandemic.

But Sherry and Puffer, both juniors, and other top runners in the state have managed to find

other places to race, mainly on the track in small invitational races against elite athletes in nearby states.

A group of top high school runners, including Puffer and

Sherry, have been invited to compete Oct. 23 at an elite track event called the “Big City Distance Classic” at Icahn Stadium in New York City. It’s uncertain whether Sherry will run in the 5,000-meter race or the 3,000. Puffer will run in the 5,000.

“Right now, you really just have to take the opportunities you have — that’s kind of what I’m doing,” Puffer said. “Like if you want to race, just go out and race. If you find any races, go out and race.”

The CIAC is allowing runners four opportunities to race outside their high school seasons, but they mustrunasunaffiliatedcompetitors.

Sherry competed in a 5,000meter race in NewJersey, finishing in 14 minutes, 44 seconds. Puffer has raced in three invitationals — a 3,000-meter event at the Labor Day Showdown in Newton, Mass., where he clocked an 8:26.17; the NewEngland’s Finest Throwdown 5K at Rentschler Field, where he ran with Cabral and the lead pack for four loops of the parking lot and ended up finishing fourth in 14:34; and he ran 14:24 earlier this month at a 5,000-meter race in

MARKMIRKO/HARTFORD COURANTPHOTOS Gavin Sherry of Conard runs during the 2019 CCC cross country championship at Wickham Park. Sherry won the race in a time of 15 minutes, 43 seconds.

A field of more than 200 runners, including winner Gavin Sherry of Conard (No. 2002), take off from the start of the 2019 CIAC Boys State Open. Sherry finished the race in 15 minutes, 38 seconds.