Conference Championship Recaps

Conference week is always one of the most exciting times of the year.  Each team gets to go against their local rivals they have competed against all year to see who is the king of their region.  Its hard to keep up with all the action that has happened in just a few short days, so CT Milesplit has summarized it for you all in one place.  The following are the team champions for each conference and a brief recap of a few of the more notable performances.  

Southwest Conference- There are two ways to win a championship; score in almost every event or score big in a few events.  Newtown girls and Bunnell boys took totally different paths to the same goal.  

The lady Nighthawks scored in 14 of 18 events and were led by junior Carly Swierbut who swept all three 

sprints.  She won the 100m in 12.51, 200m in 25.88 and ran the 400m in 57.58.  But the bulk of their points came from their dominate throwing corps.  Senior Marley Marston took the shot and discus and Erin Burns took 2nd in the shot, 3rd in the disc and 7th in the javelin.  Not only that, three other girls scored in the throws for a grand total of 55 points.  

"I thought we were more well rounded and got points in a lot of different spots" stated Newtown Coach  Rich Marcelo.  "When you have 25 girls pr on the same day, you are definitely in the mix."

Emma Connolly of Immaculate set a meet record in the 800m running 2:16.04 and came back later to hold off Weston to help win the 4 x 400m.  Both teams breaking the old meet record set by Weston in 2014.  Immaculate's 4:00.97 and Weston's 4:01.61 are currently the 4th and 5th best times in the state.  

Bunnell boys scored in half of the events, but when they scored, they scored big.  No Bulldog scoring athlete ran more than one lap and the only equipment they needed were starting blocks and a baton.  They started off the meet by breaking the all time SWC record in the 4 x 100m.  Christ N'Dabian, Jonathan Cineus, Ramsley Exantus and Elijah Henry combined to run a 42.79 which earns them the top time in Connecticut.  

You don't run that fast if you don't have four fast people.  Henry, N'Dabian, Tyreek Smith and Cineus went 1-2-4-5 in the 100m with the top two going under the meet record running 11.03 and 11.04.  

Henry then came back and led Masuk's Conor Mahoney and Christ under Weston All American, Simeon Okoro's old meet record of 22.39 in the 200m.  Henry crossed the line in 22.08, with Mahoney finishing in 22.32 and Christ taking third in 22.35. Henry also broke Joshua Barrera of Bethel's All Time SWC record in the event. 

Bunnell wasn't done yet. Cineus improved on his seed by two feet and broke another meet record with a 45-11.5 triple jump which was following by Henry's record tying jump of 45-0.  

All this (plus a few more) was enough for the Bulldogs to hold off New Milford 113-11 to take home their first SWC title since 2014 and their seventh in the past twelve years.  

There were many records set on Tuesday, most notably from Crosby senior Bernardo Mbaya who broke legendary Ansonia football coach, Jack Hunt's 53 year old discus record of 155-4.  Mbaya let out a monster throw and improved on his state lead in the event with a mark of 158'3.  

In the 300IH, Edward Williams of Sacred Heart and Aren Seeger of Naugatuck went 1-2 last year and were expecting a rematch of last year. Williams was the NVL record holder but Seeger was number two in the CIAC State Open in 2017.They probably didn't notice when Derby's Ja'Kwan Hale, the indoor State Open champion in the high jump was entered.  But as a shock to many, the versatile Hale claimed the title and broke the meet record with a time of 38.88.

Rachel Fleischer of Derby jumped 37'1.5 in the triple jump to take down another meet record.   The senior, was 3rd in the State Open last year, took over the state lead in the event.  

NCCC- Ellington boys moved up a spot from last year in the team ranking and defeated Granby Memorial 113-83.  Senior Josh Prouty was a double winner for the Knights taking the pole vault in 12'6 and 300IH in 41.15,  along with a 3rd place finish in the 110HH.

Canton's Chelsea Mitchell proved to be the fastest of the NCCC girls running the meet record of 12.37 and moving up to the 5th fastest time in the state.  

Defending 3200m champion Kylie Raymond of Somers also broke the meet record running 10:58.61.

Berkshire League- Northwest Regional boys absolutely dominated the meet and the Northwest girls broke Nonnewaug's 22 year winning streak and defeated them by 3 1/2 points.  See CT.Milesplit's coverage here.

Check back shortly for more conference recaps.