New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Shelton’s Dillon now the front-runner
Three years ago, Robert Dillon came into Shelton High as a freshman without much fanfare.
He wasn’t a top runner coming into he Gaels’ program, but early that year, it was evident that with training at the high school level and working hard would get him there.
Now, the Shelton senior is the favorite going into the 2018 cross country season for the Southern Connecticut Conference, the Class LL meet and the State Open.
It’s the first time that Dillon is the top runner returning in all three. Over the last two years, he was always chasing a pair of fel-
low SCC runners in all three meets to Drew Thompson of Fairfield Prep and Brendan Murray of Cheshire. Both of them graduated and are at Dartmouth and Yale, respectively.
“He was frustrated last year,” Shelton cross country coach Michael Gambardella said. “In all the big meets, he would come in third to both of them.”
Dillon began his athletic career, playing both in Little League baseball and in youth soccer and even tried a year of youth lacrosse, but found that none were the right fit. One day, he tried running and it felt natural. Then he eventually ran cross country and track in middle school.
Dillon was moderately successful in middle school, but once he got to high school, his ability began to show.
“I didn’t do much training in middle school, but once I got to high school, it helped me get more focused and dedicated to the sport.”
All of a sudden, Dillon was the best runner on the Shelton cross country team as a freshman.
“I was pretty surprised,” Dillon said. ‘I didn’t expect to beat the seniors or any of the underclassmen. I was pretty happy with that.”
After doing minimal training in middle school, he started to run more often, along with weight and core training. That helped him to reach his best time as a freshman at 17:07.
“He was good right from the start and became our No 1 runner as a freshman,” Gambardella said. “It’s rare to come in and do that.”
As a sophomore, he was in the top 10 in all the meets.”
Then as a junior, he took another step to being one of the top three runners in the state.
Dillon has worked hard to get to this point. He’ll run 20-30 miles a week to build the endurance he needs.
“He doesn’t take a day off and is very dedicated,” Gambardella said. “I can tell he wants it bad this year. He’s put in more miles this summer than in the past and he looks like he’s ready to go.”
The goal for Dillon is to win all three big meets — SCC, Class LL and State Open — and make the top three in the New England Open, where he finished sixth in 2017. He’s looking to get down to a 15-minute time in the SCC meet at East Shore Park and 15:45 at the State Open at hilly Wickham Park in Manchester.
“It’s going to be really different,” Dillon said. “I kind of feel the pressure but I feel I am ready to rise to the occasion.”
Dillon also competes in indoor and outdoor track. He runs in the 1600 and 3200, but has competed in the 800 when needed by the Gaels.
Dillon has three schools high on his college list. He’s looking at UConn, Columbia and Sacred Heart and will study environmental science. No matter which one he chooses, he’ll have an even longer run when it comes to cross country a year from now. Instead of running a 5K, college cross country meets are either 8K or 10K. He also said he would run on the track team.