Relay meets often highlight the depth of a team rather
than their stars and the Hillhouse Winter Relays at the Floyd Little Athletic
Center in New Haven this past Saturday proved that rule. These are meets that
give athletes, who may not even qualify for a championship, a chance to become
instrumental in a team’s victory.
North Haven took advantage of their depth, winning the girls’ meet and taking runner- up honors on the boys’ side. Veteran Coach Marc Celmer has a much-improved team from last year and was able to defeat St. Josephs of Trumbull in the girls’ meet with a score of 42-36. Scoring in six of 11 events with wins in the high jump, long jump and shot put was enough to put them over the top and take home the team title.
The North Haven Indians were led by Sonia Atluru, who won the high jump, tying the state lead in the event. She was supported by Kamran Burns who jumped 4 feet, 8 inches and Alexa Mastriano, who cleared four feet. Atluru also led her team victory in the long jump with a leap of 15-8, along with Burns (14-2) and Catie Moran (13-3.5) Another Indian gold medal was claimed by Sarah Vanacore (32-8.5), Carly Flannery (30-7) and Morgan Salerno (29-4.5) in the shot put.
St. Joseph’s took home runner-up honors by taking 20 of their 36 points in the seldom-competed indoor 55-meter HH shuttle relay and triple jump. Jada Harris and Maddie Daly combined their times to run 18.63 in the hurdles and Harris came back to jump 31-4 and was helped by Amanda Ramos and Mariah Provenzano who jumped 27-6 and 27-0, respectively.
Other top performances in the girls’ meet came from Coginchaug, who won the distance medley. Allie Alsup, Baile Thayer and sisters Samantha and Jessica Drop teamed up to run a state-leading time of 12:40.67.
Daniel Hand of Madison won girls 4x200m in 1:53.66 and sprint medley in 4:36.60. The host Hillhouse Hilltoppers took both the 4 x 400m in 4:16.93 and the 4 x 800m in 10:31.98. Finally Woodlands took home the victory in the pole vault with a three person total of 21’6.
The boys meet went down to a single point with Staples of Westport preventing a North Haven sweep by a score of 43-42. Coach Laddie Lawrence’s Wreckers are once again strong in the 400m through middle distance areas and were able to take home wins in the 4 x 400m and 4 x 800m along with a 2nd place in the distance medley. Staples team of Denzel Robinson, Philip Han- Lemus, Chase Gornbein and James Lewis won the 4 x 400 in 3:40.15 and will be looking to keep up their 15 year streak of making the State Open in the event. All New England cross country runner Oliver Hickson led off the 4 x 800 and along with Brandon Harrington, Ben Foster and Lewis ran 8:25.23 which is the 2nd fastest time in the state this young season. Foster and Hickson teamed up again and were joined by Sean Driscoll and Chase Gornbein to run a 11:30.49 in the distance medley.
Staples jumpers also got silver and bronze medals in the high jump and pole vault. Anthony Bravo had the best jump of the day and is tied for the best jump in the state with a 6-2 clearance in the high jump. He was supported by his teammates Trevor Rivkin and Christopher Bowles, who jumped 4-10 each for a combined jump of 15-10. The normally strong Staples vaulters contributed six points when Patrick Lindwall made 9-6 and Christopher Bowles cleared 8 feet. Helping to break the tie was a sixth-place finish in the sprint medley with a time of 3:59.19.
North
Haven boys held their own by scoring in five events and winning the high jump
and shot put. The Indians had a more
balanced team in the high jump with Mehdi Azizi making 6-0 and
his teammates Nick Sbabo and Shane O’Connor both getting over 5-2.
The NHHS throwers went 1 -2 and eighth as individuals to
beat Hillhouse by almost 15 feet. Patrick Vanacore’s 47-5 was followed by Shane O’Connor’s 41-5 and
Thomas Mitchell’s 39-4.
Their long jumpers were just over 3-feet short of Hillhouse’s combined winning jump of 57-9.5, but along with their second-place shuttle hurdle team of Sbabo and Chris Parisella who ran 17.09 and their third-place distance medley team made up of Corey Powers, Jonathan Goodrich, Michael Rich-Fiondella and Ryan Brennan, they were able to give Staples a big scare and came up just short of the win.
In other events, Hand went 1-2-3 in the pole vault to easily take home a gold medal. Ian Bergere recorded the state’s third best vault this season with his 13-9 and Kyle Boling cleared 10-6 and Devon McShane made 10 feet for a combined jump of 34-3. Bergere and Boling came back to win double gold in the shuttle hurdle relays in 17.01.
Bristol Central sped home to victor in the 4 x 200m with a time of 1:38.33 and Farmington took home top honor in the distance medley in 11:22.22. Hillhouse, the host team, ran Connecticut’s fastest time in the sprint medley relay with a 3:45.55.
