Braintree’s Mint Henk Qualifies for national Finals In Cross-Country Running

Braintree’s Mint Henk Qualifies for national Finals In Cross-Country Running

Braintree cross country runner Mint Henk, the Vermont state champion, is the first Vermonter in seven years to qualify for the national championship race.

For the first time since 1993, a Vermont high school boy has qualified to run in the national finals in cross-country running.

That Vermonter is Braintree’s supreme backroad runner, Mint Henk.

Until this, his junior year in high school, Henk had never even run as part of a cross country team. He trained on his own, on the roads around his isolated Braintree home; and he raced on his own.

This year Henk is attending U-32 High School, running under the expert guidance of cross-country coach Mark Chaplin. And whereas Mint Henk was good last year—very good—he is phenomenal this year.

He won every major Vermont cross country race, winning the state championship by an astounding 45 seconds. He came in second in the New England championships. And last weekend, competing in New York City against 2200 runners from all over the Northeast, Henk was sixth. That superb finish qualified him to go to the national championships Dec. 9 at the Oak Trail Golf Course in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Only 32 runners are qualified to participate—eight each from the four regional championships.

Coach Chaplin and Henk’s mother and stepfather, Barbara Carter and Steve Zind, attended the race in Cortland Park, in the Bronx, Saturday. Barbara Carter thinks it may have been words of encouragement shouted by Chaplin that were enough to spur Henk to his qualifying time.

The layout of the race allowed parents to watch the shoving and positioning at the beginning, then to go to a bridge the runners had to cross twice—going out into the woods sector and coming back to the finish line.

As Henk passed the bridge going out, Carter said, Henk was about 15th. When he came back, surging toward the finish, she thought he was about 10th.

That’s when she heard Coach Chaplin call out: "You’ve gotta want it!"

A Coach’s Words

"Those words from Mark really did something for him," Carter guesses. For whatever reason Henk passed several runners near the end, enough for his sixth place finish.

Not knowing the result, the Vermonters came back to the finish line and encountered the coach of rival runner Brian McGovern, the only runner to beat Henk in the New England championships.

"Mint’s in the winners’ tent," the coach yelled, and so they knew the result. "We were just breaking up," Carter recalled.

As for Mint himself, he wasn’t able properly to celebrate his success, as he was dizzy and nauseous for a spell.

Henk’s time was 15:46 over the five-kilometer course, tying the fastest mark ever run by a Vermonter at the regionals. He was 13 seconds behind the winner, Seton McAndrews of Queensbury, N.Y. McGovern, who lives in Connecticut, came in second.

Two other Vermonters participated in the Regionals. Bruce Hyde of Harwood finished 47th; David Shenk of Essex finished 84th.