57th John and Jessie Kelley Half Marathon: Hackett captures 4th Ocean Beach road race – Norwich Bulletin

NEW LONDON – Everett Hackett and his crew of West Hartford running teammates are seemingly making Ocean Beach their annual summer vacation destination on the first Saturday in August.
For the fourth time since 2013, Hackett, 29, won the 57th John and Jessie Kelley Ocean Beach Half Marathon Saturday with a time of 1:08.39. 
The Kelley race, which was changed from 11.6 miles to the more popular 13.1 half-marathon distance in 2017, featured the top three finishers – all from West Hartford. Nick Aguila was second behind Hackett in 1:11, while Grant O’Connor, who ran with Hackett at George Mason University, was third in 1:13. Six of the top 10 finishers among the 661 registered entrants hail from West Hartford.
Hackett is an assistant coach at Hall High of West Hartford. He points to Hall head coach Jeff Billing, a Mystic native, as the reason for the West Hartford following at Ocean Beach. 
“We’ve had a lot of fun down here,” Hackett said. “Many of the Hall cross country runners are here as well. Today, I felt great. I’m training for the Hartford Marathon in October and am in good shape. The 1:08 time was a target for me.”
Hackett ran alone for the last 12 miles. O’Connor and Aguila ran with him early but could not keep up with Hackett’s pace. Hackett at times ran ahead of the pace car when it was stuck in traffic along Great Neck Road and Boston Post Road in the second half of the race.
Aguila established himself in second place but was hardly in view of the leader on long straightaways.
 “I like running in packs but I was testing my endurance today,” Hackett said.
Aguila knew the outcome was hardly in doubt.
“I pushed it early on then turned it into a workout after six miles,” he said.
Sydney Devore of Grosse Point, Michigan, was 11th and the first female to finish in 1:22.37. The top 10 overall included Hackett, Aguila, O’Connor, Nick Orlando of Boston (1:13.37), Scott Bushey of Hebron (1:16.03), Zach Magin (1:16:11) and Trey Colmier (1:17) of West Hartford, Chris Helminski of Glastonbury (1:17) and Pat Daly of West Hartford (1:22.19).
The top Norwich finisher was 62-year-old Kevin MacDonald, who was 75th overall in 1:40.04.