Danbury, Ridgefield restore order at FCIAC West Championships


By MARTY OGDEN

When two Bridgeport teams left the FCIAC this year, the conference went from three divisions to two, the Western and Eastern Divisions.  This made both divisions much more competitive and more meaningful.  Defending champions Danbury boys and Ridgefield girls stepped up once again to take home the first of possibly many championship trophies this season. 

The Ridgefield girls who moved from the Central Division to the West, won their 12 straight title that dates back to 2005.  The Tigers, led by Coach John Goetz, managed a balanced attack to score in every event and defeat defending champion Danbury, 129-119. 

When asked what was the difference in the victory, Goetz said, "We got lucky. We didn't expect to score three girls for 12 points in the 300 meter run." He also credited Kasey McGerald for her runner up performance behind All American Hannah Debalsi in the 1600m and Rachel Maue for a leg in the 4 x 800m, a fifth place in the 1600m and a strong 3rd place performance in the 3200m to cap off her day. 

While they only won two relays, Ridgefield scored over 10 points in four other events with multiple scorers.

Danbury went after their neighbor to the south scoring 10 or more points in 8 of the 15 events.  But Ridgefield who was the FCIAC champions in cross country outscored them 26-1 in the 1000m, 1600m and 3200m.

The Hatter managed to win the 50m with Saintphanie Porcenat blazing to a 6.94 seconds, Bridget Chiaravalle's new school record of 8.09 in the 50HH.  Personal records were set in the long jump by Caylea Landrie of 15'10 and Jess Robbins in the shot put (31'10).  Danbury also took home relay gold in the sprint medley and 4 x 400m to keep the Tigers within range. 

Other multiple winners include Emily Philippides of Greenwich, holding off last year's State Open runner-up Leah Sarkisian by .24 seconds in the 600m, running 1:41.47 and winning by .01 seconds over 50mHH champion Chiaravalle in the 300m with a time of 43.84.

Of course Stanford-bound Debalsi put on her usual show, winning all three distance events with machine-like efficiency. 

Danbury boys won their 12th Western Division in 16 years over Staples with a score of 176-100.5.  They did it by scoring in all 15 events, winning 9 of the 15 events and scoring double places in 8 out of the 11 individual events.

Danbury coach Rob Murray stated, "We knew the distance points would be hard to come by because of Staples great middle distance runners.  But the sprinters, hurdlers and throwers did a better job than expected." 

Devonte Clarke proved to be the fastest sprinter in the West with his dominating wins in the 50m and 300m sprints with times of 6.04 and 37.88 on the 160m flat track. 

Tyler Gleen of Trumbull, who currently has the 7th fastest time in the country in the 600m won the event by 2 seconds in 1:26.48.  He came back later in the meet to anchor the victorious sprint medley team that ran an outstanding 3:52.72.

Greenwich's Scott Scott came up with a two-inch PR to win the high jump at 6'4 to give him the 5th best jump in CT. 

The distance events all came down to the wire and the margins of victory combined to be less than a second for all three races.  Senior James Lewis of Staples won the 1000m by .07 seconds defeating sophomore Tyler Rubush of Trumbull 2:42.07 to 2:42.14. 

In the 1600m, another Staples senior Zakeer Ahmad held off Danbury sophomore Dan Nichols 4:37.37 to 4:37.84. And finally in the 3200m, Danbury's Jack Adamski came onto the final straightaway and turned on the after burners defeating Stamford's Gilmar Barrios, 10:01.06 to 10:01.27.

The FCIAC Championship will be held on Thursday at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven with a 4:30 pm start time.  Go to  http://rhsxctrack.org/Page.asp?n=87949&org=RHSXCTRACK.ORG for more information.