Braintree’s Mint Henk Is 2nd in New England Race

Braintree runner Mint Henk, though just a high school junior, proved to the world last weekend that he’s the second best cross country runner in New England.

Henk came in second and another Vermont runner, Bruce Hyde of Harwood, came in third at the New England High School Cross Country Championship, held Saturday at the Thetford course.

Henk’s only regret: that he didn’t have quite enough kick at the end to beat defending New England Champion Brian McGovern of Fairfield Prep in Connecticut. McGovern, who ran sixth in the nation last year, beat him by three seconds in a total time of 16 minutes, seven seconds for the five kilometer course.

Henk’s superlative finish at the New England Championship caps an incredible year in which he won virtually every major cross country race in Vermont this year and became acknowledged as Vermont’s top long-distance runner.

He attracted attention from running coaches in Junior High and finished fourth in the state championship as a freshman, second as a sophomore. At the end of this dominant year, everyone associated with running knows him well.

His success is all the more astounding because until this year, Henk was part of no high school team, since Randolph Union High School doesn’t have one. He trained a bit with other schools, but when he was in a meet, he ran as an independent. And his training, mile after mile of it, was mostly lonely running on his own, setting his own goals, timing himself, trying to figure it out on his own.

Last summer, Henk made the crucial decision to find a team to run with. The choice was natural—U-32 in Montpelier has one of the top running programs in the state, and Henk already had spent considerable time with its coach, Mark Chaplin.

Chaplin’s daughter Tara was a statewide sensation in high school and is continuing to chew up the tracks as a college student.

Being part of a team, and under Chaplin’s expert tutelage, Henk hasn’t looked back all season. He won the Essex Invitational on Sept. 16, then the Harwood Coed Invitational and the prestigious Thetford Invitational. In that race, he finished ahead of Brian McGovern, who came in sixth.

In his second-place finish Saturday, Henk helped his team to a fourth place overall finish. Harwood came in seventh.