Staples' elite distance runner Hannah Debalsi broke into the news in a big way as a freshman in October of 2012 by winning the Wickham Park Invite by 13 seconds, and she went on to finish 11th at the New England Championship in Cumberland ME in November. From there she was off to the races as a freshman while picking up the CIAC Indoor Open 3200m race in February, and then after losing to Westhill's Claire Howlett in both the 1600m and 3200m at the outdoor Open, she set a still-standing 3200m mark of 10:10.36 while winning the New England Championship and then capping off the year with a 3rd at New Balance Outdoor Nationals in the 2 mile.
Debalsi's big feats continued during her sophomore year as she captured the CIAC Open XC title and also won the New England championship in Manchester NH before finishing 2nd to Tessa Barrett of Waverly PA at Foot Locker Nationals. Indoors in 2014, she set still-standing state records in the 3200m at 10:19.26 while winning Class LL and then capturing the Open title and in the 2 mile at 10:12.95 while winning the New England title and finishing 4th at NBIN. Outdoors as a sophomore, Debalsi won the Open 3200m and then captured the national championship in the 2 mile at NBON with a followup a week later at the Brooks Invite where she set a state record in the 2 mile at 9:55.05 while finishing 2nd to Northwood CA senior Bethan Knights.
By the time her junior outdoor season rolled around, Debalsi had racked up many more plaudits, including XC wins at the Open and New England championships and a 5th at Foot Locker Nationals, and indoor wins in the Open 3200m and New England 2 mile. When the FCIAC championship came along on May 26 2015, she had run almost undefeated except for a 6th among a storied field in the 3000m at Penn Relays and a 2nd to NY champ Bella Burda of Arlington in the Loucks 3200m.
The 1600m was kind of Debalsi's "second distance" at which she would accumulate an extraordinary six 2nd places and one 3rd at the Open state championships, finishing behind Howlett in her freshman year and then behind Wilbur Cross's Danae Rivers during her last three years. But she was almost always running the 1600m-3200m double at the Open meets, and she definitely could lay down a mean 1600m. Her best time came as a sophomore in the 2014 Open when she ran a 4:47.50 to lose out to Rivers by .05.
In the 2015 FCIAC 1600m, she was on her way to picking up the distance double under more relaxed conditions while helping Staples win the team title. She again placed 2nd to Rivers in the Open 1600m while taking the Open and New England 3200m double and finishing 3rd at Brooks in the 2 mile.
Debalsi capped off her high school career with wins in the XC and New England championships and 12th at Foot Locker, indoor wins in the Open and New England 3200m and a 4th in the NBIN 5k where she set a still-standing state record of 16:32.26, and an outdoor win in the Open 3200m and a 3rd at New England in her final race. She went to run well for Stanford University, but the pandemic may have curtailed her potential there.
Below is an interview with Debalsi after she set the indoor state record in the 5K as a senior on March 11, 2016 at NBIN.