By MARTY OGDEN
The faces may change but the results stay the same.
For the fourth consecutive year and 10th out of the past 11 years, the Weston girls have walked away with the Southwest Conference indoor track and field championship at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven. The Trojans latest victory occurred on Sunday with a 101-70 decision over second-place Pomperaug.
Weston was led by senior Rhemi Toth, who won the 1000 meter run in a new school, meet and conference record of 2 minutes, 57.42 seconds. She was pushed the entire way by New Milford junior Mia Nahom who finished only three tenths of a second behind to also break the old record and get the second and third fastest times in the state.
Toth came back to anchor the sprint medley relay with a split of 2:22 to another meet record of 4:22.52 and finished off the day with a victory in the 4x400 after New Milford was disqualified for interference on one of the handoffs.
Another standout performer for the Trojans was senior Nathalie Feingold who broke the meet and school records in the 55HH with a time of 8.69, (sixth in CT) long jumped a PR of16 feet, 10 inches (Eighth in CT) and came back to take fourth in the high jump with a leap of 4-8.
Like all championship teams, Weston is more than just one or two individuals. Besides the sprint medley and 4x400m wins, they were also runner-ups in the 4x800m and took fourth place in the 4x200m for a total of 32 out of their 101 total points they earned from the relays.
But one of the biggest events for Weston has been the pole vault where Hannah Campos (9'6), Danielle Cass (9-6), Emily Latesta (9-0) and Erin O'Connell (8'6) went 3-4-5 and sixth for a total of 13 point. This group is expecting even better things at the class meet where they currently have the second through sixth best jumps in Class M.
Not to be overlooked are the other jumping events where besides Feingold's win in the long jump, they also took fourth and fifth behind Campos' 15-9 and Sophia Rico's leap of 15-5.
In the high jump, Feingold jumped 4-8; Hannah Greene was fifth with the same height and Latesta was sixth in 4-6 for a grand total of 36 points in the jumping event.
The leader of this dynasty is veteran coach Matt Medve who restarted the indoor track program 20 years ago after being dormant for over a decade. He credits not only his assistant coaches Llyod Weinstein, Doug Pregman and Rich Marcello but also all the athletes that came before who set the expectations of the current team.
"Success breeds success" Medve said. "We get some of best student athletes in the school to come out for the team and each class pushes the next class to keep the tradition alive."
Pomperaug girls didn't pick up any points in the field events, but managed to take runner-up honors based on their efforts on the track. They began the day by leading the 4x800m from the gun with a time of 10:07.83. Sara Tarascio, Allison Meyer and Michaela Meyer were three members of Pomperaug's New England qualifying relay last winter and they teamed with Elizabeth Evans to take their first win of the night.
Michaela Meyer came back a short time later to take the 600m in 1:38.99 and then capped off her day with her third gold medal in the 300m, running her best time of the season 43.15. Her twin sister Allison, came back from the 4 x 800m to take 5th in the 600m and run a leg on the runner up 4 x 400m.
Two of the most exciting races of the day were the 1,000m and 1,600m and both involved Nahom, who went back to play soccer this fall after finishing third in the State Open Cross Country Championships in 2014. After a very hard race in the 1,000m with Toth, she came back to run the 1,600m against Jenna Gasparrini who earned All-New England honors with a top-10 finish at the New England cross-country championship. Gasparrini took it out hard and built up a big lead by the 800m mark. Following the strategy of her father/coach Mike, she hung back in the pack and narrowed the lead to about 30 meters by the sixth lap. That is when the New Milford soccer standout started her drive for the Immaculate senior. Even with 100m to go, Nahom was still about 10-meters behind, but made it up and barely caught Gasparrini at the line running 5:15.23, which won by a half of a second.
SWC Boys
The SWC boys meet saw Masuk return to the winner's circle for the first time since 1996, the same year the league was founded by their coach Ed Butler. While they have had several runner-up finishes, bringing the championship trophy back to Masuk is a special accomplishment for the coach and team.
"It's been a long time coming," Butler said, "but I am so happy to be a part of this win with the team."
The Panthers won mostly on the backs of their sprinters. They started off winning the 4x200m with Matthew Winkler, Ryan Forger, Christopher Reagan and Johnathan Culp combining to run a 1:36.84. Culp took home his second gold in the 55m with his PR of 6.87 and then finished off his day taking fourth in the 300m. Winkler came back to take third in a career best of 8.64 in the 55HH and a leg of the sprint medley. Reagan finished a tick behind Culp in the 55m and took second in the 300m. Forger also returned to take part in the sprint medley. These four speedsters were involved in 49 of the 77 points.
All-New England high-jumper Joseph DiMartino took his specialty with a 6-2 jump and added a fourth place finish in the 55HH. Masuk's last All-SWC honoree Justin Cohen made his life time best in the long jump (19-10) to take second.
Pomperaug's Carl Marshall's time has steadily improved in the hurdles and broke eight seconds for the first time in the 55HH which moved up to the number three time in the Connecticut to take the win.
Mike Rautter of New Fairfield, who has been more known for being a distance runner, showed off some new found foot speed by setting the meet record in the 1,000m with a time of 2:35.91, breaking his former teammate Robert Cheng's record of 2:36.50. His time gives him the fourth fastest time in the state. Not only that, he came back a short time later to place second in the 1,600m by only three tenths of a second behind Mike Bortolot of Joel Barlow, who ran 4:28.12. Rautter followed Nahom's same race strategy and was charging hard the last 150m, but Bortolot was able to barely hold him off. Rautter then finished off his day with a fourth-place finish in the 3,200m in 10:17.
The state leader in the shot put, Jack Godfrey of Newtown, had an easy time of it, throwing 48-7 and winning by nearly 10 feet.
Cameron Okoro of Weston has been a part of several relays last year that earned him multiple honors. But now he has added a new event to his repertoire by winning the long jump with the 10th best jump in the state of 21-3.
Joel Barlow picked their spots to score and came up with significant points in several events. Milan Spisek broke his own school record in the pole vault with a 12'6 clearance and Mike Bortolot won the 1600m and finished 2nd in the 3200m. Add in Ben Ruffings runner up in the 1000m in 2:36.19 that broke the old SWC meet record, that gave them three All SWC selections.