Connolly closing hard the last lap at the Archer Invitational to run the fastest sophomore mile time of the season so far
All signs point to Chris Connolly being a front running distance star for the next two years of high school. The Chattahoochee Sophomore is currently ranked first among sophomores in Georgia in the 1600 and ranks 6th among sophomores in the 3200. He owns PR's of 4:24 and 9:51 in those evets along with 2:05, 55, and 25 in the 800, 400, and 200 which are events he has also run this outdoor season. So he clearly likes working on his speed as well.
Distance coaches anywhere will tell you that any boy who breaks 20 in cross country as a freshman has potential to be a future varsity runner. But when you've got one who breaks 18, you've got potential for a star. Connolly's first ever cross country race was an 18:29 at the Warpath Invitational and then he finished the year at 17:53 at his region meet. Then in track he got even faster. He worked his time in the 1600 all the way down to 4:32, which he ran at his region meet and was pretty close to the state meet qualifiers. He also had PR's of 2:06 in the 800 and 10:21 in the 3200.
Then as a sophomore he was able to drop his cross country time down to 16:46 at the Asics invitational and then went on to help his team qualify for the state championship in class 6A with his 5th place finish at the region meet. In his first ever state meet he placed 42nd in a very respectable time of 17:32 on a tough Carrollton Course. And then this track season he has run PR's in everything but that all culminated in his very first big win at the 2022 Fulton County Championships where he placed 3rd in the 1600 and then came back later in the day to win the 3200 in a time of 9:57. Winning a county title as a sophomore is not something that is easy to do and something very few have the ability to do.
Connolly has all the makings of a future star. I hope to see a big fall out of him after he puts in the miles this summer. But he also has the potential to make some noise this year as a sophomore. I also would love to see him finish off his track season at the state meet, because he's currently ranked 4th in the 1600 and 11th in the 3200 for class 6A.
