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It wasn't a shake-up-the-world kind of day for the BL and NVL track champions at the Class M state meet Tuesday at Willow Brook Park. It was more of a rattle than a shake, but it was a heck of a loud rattle.
The Nonnewaug girls won a 4x100 relay, and took home gold medals in two field events, the high jump and the javelin. The Woodland boys won the 4x400 relay in record-setting time, and won gold in the long jump.
In the end, both teams brought home runner-up trophies. Tolland edged the Chiefs, 82-75, while Bloomfield dusted the boys field, 96.75 points, to Woodland's 64.75.
And on a hot, windy day, not conducive to record-breaking, records still fell. Northwestern's Dan Santalla won both hurdles crowns, taking the 110 in 14.97, and then the 300 in a record-setting 38.68.
In the 300, Santalla muscled his way to the title, and called his race, "Atrocious. It was an absolute failure. One of those times where you find out how mentally tough you are."
He said he will go "back to the drawing board, break it down, build it back up, and bring it back Monday," to the State Open.
The other local record belonged to the Woodland boys in the 4x400, the final event of the competition. With frightening, storming skies rushing over Willow Brook, the Hawks ran like they had a bus to catch. Behind Nick LaPerriere, John Alarcon, Tim Madormo and Eric Dietz, the relay time of 3:21.48 is the fastest ever in Class M.
The 4x4 clinched second place for Woodland, and as Dietz noted, "We made it happen today. We had all our best guys in the best places, and we just brought it home for Woodland, all day."
Along with the 4x4 win, sophomore Mike Lang won the long jump with a leap of 21 feet, 11 3/4 inches. He did that jump while in the qualifying flight, then he left to begin the high jump. He found out he had won the long jump gold only when it was announced over the loudspeakers.
The other individual gold for boys came from Wolcott's Joe Gioielli. He won the 800 meters in 1:54.85. Gioielli sprinted out to the lead, and led all the way, until Chad Pellerin of Windham Tech ran up and got on Gioielli's right shoulder on the final backstretch. The Wolcott senior kicked sooner than he prefers.
"I felt him," Gioielli said. "It was time to go. I put all the energy I had into the last 250 meters. You want to start speeding
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it up on the back stretch, but for me it is 200 meters. It made it that much harder."
The other local gold medal for boys came in the 4x800 relay which opened the meet. The Oxford High foursome of Brandon Au, Ryan Flach, Michael Morton, and Cameron Swift won in 8:25.96.
For the Nonnewaug ladies, there was a lot of gold medal winning going on at the same time. To start the meet, the 4x100 relay of Sara Morson, Michaela Pernell, Gracie Cvanciger and Sara Velleca won gold in 49.46. Junior Abby Jones was at the high jump, and she had to step off the track to wait for the 4x1 to race by, then she cleared the bar at 4-10 on her third try, and went on to win the high jump at 5 feet.
Next to the high jump, at the same time, Nonnewaug senior Ashley Rozzi was watching it all happen while she was winning gold in the javelin, with a throw of 112 feet, 7 inches.
"We knew we had a chance to win a lot of events today as a team," Jones said. And when she saw what was happening around her, she added, "It was hard to stay focused. But when you see the team doing well it inspired me to do just as well."
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