COLCHESTER, Vt. - Saint Michael's College men's and women's cross country and outdoor track head coach Molly Peters has been selected for the seven-member 2026 class of inductees into the RunVermont Hall of Fame, set for enshrinement on Friday during the Sports & Fitness Expo at the DoubleTree Hotel in South Burlington. Former men's cross country head coach and student-athlete Joe Connelly '87 joins her in the class.
 
Peters and Russ Pickering (posthumous) are being cited in the Coaches of Distinction category, while Connelly and Ray W. Allen (posthumous) represent the Advocates category. Matt Pelletier, Anne Czaplinski Treadwell and Heidi Westover complete the class as Athletes of Distinction.
 
According to RunVermont, Coaches of Distinction inductees are running coaches who have contributed to the development of runners or running events throughout Vermont and beyond. Peters is one of the most impactful head coaches in the history of Saint Michael's Athletics while holding the longest head coaching tenures for women's cross country (20 years and counting) and Nordic skiing (13 years). Her 2014 women's cross country team qualified for the NCAA Championship, two individual harriers have competed at NCAAs, and three Nordic skiers made the national meet over her final two seasons guiding that program. She also took over the men's cross country team in 2021 and led the fledgling men's and women's outdoor track programs during their initial varsity campaigns this spring. Just last fall, men's cross country had its highest regionals finish ever, placing fourth among 18 schools.
 
Since 2020, Peters has worked diligently to bring equal-distance races to both cross country and Nordic skiing, garnering wide-spread support from both communities in an effort to convince various governing bodies to offer equal-distance events at their championships. Peters and the College have hosted Equality Invitational 8K races in cross country on campus and, in 2022, the Federation of International Skiing (FIS) voted to change the distances of World Cup races, thanks in large part to Peters' activism. Many events on the world circuit - including some at the NCAA Championship - follow an equal-distances model. Learn more at equaldistance.org.
 
A former three-sport standout at nearby Middlebury College, Peters trained after graduation in Park City, Utah, with aspirations of qualifying for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Nordic skiing. A 1997 graduate of Middlebury, Peters competed there in cross country, Nordic skiing and outdoor track & field. She qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship in cross country as a senior; competed in three NCAA skiing championships, earning an All-America finish her senior year; and took All-America honors in the 1,500-meter run in outdoor track & field as a senior, placing sixth in the event at the NCAA Championship.
 
Connelly, a former cross country and Nordic skiing student-athlete at Saint Michael's, has been part of the Vermont City Marathon since its very first running in 1989, when he competed as a runner. In the years since, he has filled nearly every role imaginable at RunVermont, from course captain to technical director to executive director (2022-24), and now chief of race operations, making him the longest-serving member of the RunVermont staff. The races and programs he has guided include the Vermont City Marathon, First Run, Half Marathon Unplugged, Island Vines, the Summer Six Pack Series, and Freezy Cheeks Series.
 
Following his undergraduate career, Connelly returned to his alma mater as men's cross country and Nordic skiing head coach during the 2001-02 school year, guiding the former for 20 years and the latter for 11. He mentored SMC Athletic Hall of Famer Drew Best '04 to the men's cross country program's first and thus far only NCAA Championship qualification in fall 2003 while pushing the squad to four top-eight performances at NCAA regional championships. Connelly was also a key member of the local organizing committee that brought the USA Triathlon National Championships to Burlington from 2010 to 2012. 
 
The Vermont City Marathon Hall of Fame was formed in 1995 to recognize individuals who had participated in every Vermont City Marathon since its inception in 1989. In 2008, the RunVermont Board of Directors broadened the scope of the Hall of Fame by opening consideration to people whose efforts, consistent with the mission of RunVermont, have supported running in Vermont. At that time, the name was changed to the RunVermont Hall of Fame. RunVermont, formed in 2004, is home to New England's third-largest marathon and Vermont's largest single-day sporting event, the M&T Bank Vermont City Marathon & Relay, which was founded in 1989 and was the first marathon in the United States to include a marathon relay in conjunction with a marathon. This year's M&T Bank Vermont City Marathon & Relay occurs on Sunday. For more information, visit runvermont.org.