Hillhouse claims first Open crown in 18 years!


By MARTY OGDEN

In these days of athletes skipping meets to save themselves for the bigger postseason competitions, Alex Ostberg has proven he is a person who truly puts the team ahead of himself. While he has already claimed state records on the track, qualified for Footlocker Nationals two times and won a national championship last spring in the 5000m, he put himself on the line three times in probably the most grueling triple of the meet to help Darien to a third-place team finish. Hillhouse won its first team crown since 1997 with a 43-40 decision over Weston.

Ostberg started his day by running the anchor in the 4x800 meter relay. He took the team from fourth to second place, a little more than a second behind Danbury's winning time of 8 minutes, 6.45 seconds. He then teamed up once again with Armstrong Noonan in the 1,600m to try and score big points. With no one willing to take the lead, he took the pack through a 2:16 800m. The pace soon picked up and the Darien duo had their hands full with three other runners on their heels including Ari Klau of Hall. Klau, who has had more success over the longer races and has never beaten Ostberg before, surprised everyone, including himself with a narrow .13 second win with Noonan taking third.

Finally, both Darien runners lined up for the 3,200m and once again set the pace. This time junior Eric Van der Els of Brien McMahon challenged Ostberg for the lead and both fought all the way through the line with Van der Els setting a 10-second PR to claim his first State Open win by just over three tenths of a second, running 9:17.39.

All totaled, it was just by 1.5 seconds that kept Darien from taking a State Open runner-up trophy that went to Weston, who dominated the relays to claim their highest finish ever at the State Open. The Trojans started off the day in a big way by breaking the State Open record in the 4x200m by more than a second with a time of 1:30.33 over rival Windsor, who also broke the State Open record. Micah Zirn, Ian Stuebe, Chris Petty and Simeon Okoro led from start to finish and took home a top 20 time in the country.

Zirn, Petty, Okoro's younger brother Cameron, and Cole Clark once again led from start to finish in the sprint medley and just missed breaking another meet record, but still managing to run the 15th best time in the country with a 3:37.63. Simeon Okoro, who was last spring's State Open and New England Champion in the 400m, proved that he is still the best long sprinter in the state with a 34.89 win in the 300m. Then with a little over an hour rest, he teamed up once again with Zern, Petty and Patrick Baber to win a thrilling battle in the 4x400m with Hillhouse, whose athletes finished 2-4 and ninth in the 300m. Last week at the Class M meet, Weston beat them by .06 seconds and this week each Weston runner ran stronger, but Okoro still received the baton a step behind Hillhouse. But like all great champions who refuse to lose, the Trojan found another gear and once again got the Academics, this time by one second with a time of 3:26.03.

Even with Weston's last event heroics, nothing could stop Hillhouse from claiming their first State Open in 18 years. Shawn Fletcher mildly upset top seed Tyrick Henry of Enfield to take home his first gold medal at the Open in the 55m hurdles, running 7.71. Akiel Smith took advantage of top-seeded Mark Doyley of Weaver's strained hamstring to take the runner-up spot in the 55m behind Kennedy's Stanley Little who ran a 6.47 personal record. Points in the 4 x 200m and high jump contributed to the title, but it was in the 300m where Hillhouse made its mark. Smith and Tyreise Swain went 2-4 for 12 points to give them a cushion going into 4x400 where their second-place finish in the event clinched the title.

In the 1,000m Spenser Brown of Wilton won his first Open title in 2:32.14 by taking it out hard on the pack and building up enough lead to prevent an upset by Ridgefield's Kristian Sogard, who was coming on strong over the last 100m.

On the inside of the oval, Joe Fogarsi of Windham won his eighth state title in the pole vault with a jump of 15 feet over his friends and training partners Chris Rough of Westhill and Leland Roberts of Danbury. They train together at the Danbury Sports Dome, along with the second- and third-place girls, Laurel Bailey of Shelton and Ali Moraveck of Masuk. All three boys had good attempts at 15 feet with only Fogarsi clearing the bar.

The next big meets coming up will be The New England Championships this Friday, Eastern States next Tuesday at the Armory and New Balance Indoor Nationals, beginning March 13 at the Armory again.