By MARTY OGDEN
It seems every year the distance runners in the FCIAC get better than the year before and the distance events were definitely on display this Saturday at the Fairfield County Conference Outdoor Championships at Bethel High School.
Two national champions, Eric van der Els of Brien McMahon and Hannah Debalsi of Staples ran their last laps against strictly FCIAC competition and took away a pair of gold medals in the 1600m and 3200m races. Debalsi won her thirdconference titles in both races by comfortable margins while making it look like she was out for a Sunday stroll. While her 1600 time of 4:59.98 and 3200m time of 10:42.89 weren't her fastest times, she could be forgiven for enjoying the applause of her local fans for the last time before she leaves Connecticut for Stamford University in California.
Van der Els, on the other hand had a tougher time with runners around him at the halfway point, but was able to run negative splits to pull away from Staples junior Ahmad Zakeer in both races. The senior won in 4:13.52 and 9:17.64 to Zakeer's PRs 4:15.08 and 9:21.28. To add to his list of accomplishments, van der Els broke Henry Wynne's meet record of 4:14.30. Wynne, currently a junior at the University of Virginia is already a three-time All American and was this year NCAA Champion in the indoor mile.
Besides Zakeer's outstanding double, it looks like the FCIAC is ready to produce its next era of superstars as Wilton's Aaron Breene and van der Els' teammate Ajax Diamandis all broke 4:20 and will be returning next year.
On the girls' side, steadily improving Emily Philippides of Greenwich blew away the competition in the 800m with a time of 2:12.34, breaking a 35-year-old meet record held by Ceci Hopp also of Greenwich, who went on to win high school, NCAA and USATF national championships and had a 15- year career as one of America's top distance runners. The next nine behind Philippides, a sophomore, were all returners and will have to run fast if they want to make it to the winner's circle.
Philippides came back later in the day to help her Greenwich teammates break Danbury's meet record in the 4 x 400 with a 3:58.50 barely ahead of Ridgefield who improved on their seed time by 15 seconds and also broke the meet record.
Winning the discus in her first season of track and field was Philippides' teammate, senior Abbey Wolf who threw 115'0 on her last throw. The senior who has committed to play basketball for Northwestern is the daughter of 1984 Olympic shot putter Augie Wolf. The 6'4 senior, has always had commitments for her AAU team which hasn't allowed her to participate in spring track, but being pulled around to various track camps and meets by her dad gave her the experience to pick up the throwing events quickly.
"This win means a lot to me" Wolf said. "This is my first FCIAC championship at Greenwich after being runner up as a team in basketball and volleyball."
Earning the title of "Fastest Girl in the FCIAC" was double winner Kanajzae Brown of Bridgeport Central who won the 100m and 200m races to go along with her 55m title indoor. Her time of 12.28 and 25.57 were her best times of the season and her best since she was hit by a car while walking to her bus stop and fractured her hip in December of 2014.
Danbury boys and girls took the team championships, matching their similar accomplishments during the indoor track season. The boys had a balanced attack scoring in 17 of 18 events. They won the 4 x 100m in 43.55 and 4 x 400m in 3:24.21. The anchor of the 4 x 100m, Jonathan Bartley also won the 300IH in 40.97.
Junior Tumani Edwards took home ten points for Danbury with his win in the triple jump with a leap of 43'5.
Danbury once again defeated runner up finisher Ridgefield 140-96 to make three years in a row the two neighboring schools finished in the same order. Ridgefield's Jack Weston was their only winner of the day taking the javelin with a throw of 182'9. They scored half of their points in the sprints and were denied big points in the distance events due to the overly competitive nature of these events this season.
The Hatter girls also scored in 17 of the 18 events and were led by Caylea Landrie who won the long and triple jumps and triple winner Bridget Chiaravalle who won both hurdle races and was a member of the 4 x 100m team.
Senior captain Landrie defeated Ridgefield sophomore Anna Landler on her last jump with a 16'7.75 to win by 3/4th of an inch. She came back later in the day to win the triple with a 34'4. "Even though these weren't personal records, I am just so happy to score points for my team" Landrie stated after the six- hour meet was concluded.
Chiaravalle, whose older brothers Justin and Shane already hold the boys 110HH and 300IH has made her own mark on the Danbury record books by setting school records indoor and the 100HH outdoors this year. She won the 100HH Saturday by a second in 15.46, even after hitting one of the hurdles and came back to win the 300IH in her best time of 46.44.
The Danbury junior said "I've worked so hard for this and I am so happy" proudly showing off three gold medals. She teamed up with 100m and 200m runner up Saintphanie Porcenat, Ruby Mboya, and Zyniah Bunn to repeat as 4 x 100m champions.
Second year head girls coach Nick Fraticelli, who was previously the assistant coach of the boy's team summed up the day saying "It was an amazing experience yesterday. To have both teams cheering for each other as well as having a collective positive experience at practice each day and having it translate to the competitive environment is a great thing to see."