We sat down with cross country star, sophomore captain Connor Hayden, and asked him some rapid fire questions on various different subjects. Here are some of his answers:

1.     Age? 18

2.     Hometown? Cumberland, Rhode Island

3.     Major/Minor? I’m double majoring in history and creative writing.

4.     Why Cross Country? Actually, I used to swim in high school and that was my first real sport but my freshman year [of high school] going into spring a few of my friends on the swim team were doing track, so they told me to do it and it just started and fell in love with it so I just kept on going with it.

5.     When did you transition over to XC? I ran and swam all of high school, but when I was applying to school I decided to do cross country instead of swim.

6.     Did you find that distance was better than sprinting? I have always been more of a distance guy. There’s some guys on the team that are just naturally fast and I just do better over longer distances. I can hang in there.

7.     What’s your favorite color? Green

8.     What’s your favorite movie? “The World According to Garp” (1982)

9.     What’s your favorite song right now? I’ve been listening to “Magic in the Hamptons” (Social House) with my friends a lot. That has been the song of our preseason.

10.  If you were an animal, what would you be? Probably a dog. Other guys on the team yell at me because when we’re on runs I’ll stop and pet a dog, I’ll go out of my way.

11.  What would your superhero power be? Reading minds.

12.  What would your supervillain power be? Probably reading minds as well. I feel that I can use that

13.  Describe your perfect date: Probably go out to dinner or something. Go to the park for sunset.

14.  What’s your dream vacation? It’s not just one small vacation but what I would do is a year backpacking around the world.

15.  If you could bring three items to a deserted island, what would they be? A book, a journal and a camera

16.  What’s your favorite part about running? I like the hard work of it. It’s like a lot other sports you have to be born with the natural gift but I think with running anyone can pick it up and stick with it, you can stay and you can get good.

17.  Do you prefer music or no music while running? No music. Headphones are kind of annoying and sometimes it hypes you up also sometimes its distracting.

18.  What’s your favorite sneaker brand? It used to be new balance but I’ve started to wear HOKA ONE ONEs more.

19.  What’s your dream job? I want to be a writer but I’m also thinking about being a historian.

20.  Any specific time period? Ancient/Medieval

21.  What’s your go-to binge watch show? Scrubs

22.  What’s your favorite meal? Steak