Anna Gillan and Steven Hergenrother are this year's RHS CIAC Scholar Athletes. The CIAC Scholar-Athlete Program annually recognizes "two high school seniors from each member school whose academic and athletic careers have been exemplary, whose personal standards and achievements are a model to others, and who possess high levels of integrity, self-discipline, and courage." CIAC hosts a yearly banquet to celebrate these students.
Anna Gillan is a high honor roll student with a weighted GPA of 4.4. Taking all honors/APs her senior year, Anna also balances being a tri-captain athlete in soccer, basketball, and track. She earned all New England honors for soccer her senior year, first team all FCIAC in basketball her junior year, and first team all FCIAC for track during both her sophomore and junior years. She is a two-time Defensive Player of the Year along with MVP for soccer, MVP and Tiger Pride award winner for basketball, and Most Outstanding Newcomer for track. Anna plans on attending the University of Connecticut next fall where she wants to pursue a career in Sports Management.
Steven Hergenrother is the RHS Class of 2024’s valedictorian. Steven has been the co-captain of the cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track teams for the past two years. Steven anchored the National Championship-winning distance medley relay (DMR) team in outdoor track 2023 and indoor track 2024. He was the FCIAC, State Class, and State Open champion in cross country in 2022 and 2023. He was also the New England Cross Country Champion in 2023. He has led the RHS cross country team to FCIAC, State Class, State Open, and New England championships. Steven was the CT Gatorade Player of the Year for cross country in 2022 and 2023. He had the US high school #1 time in the 1000m distance in indoor track 2024. In addition to the DMR’s All-American result, Steven was All-American in the individual mile as well as the 4 x 800m relay in indoor track in 2024 and has achieved All-American results in eight races total. Steven holds numerous school records in indoor and outdoor track. Steven plans to study physics at Princeton University and will continue to run cross country, indoor and outdoor track there.