(Photos by MARY ALBI)
By MARTY OGDEN
While most would agree that the state meet is the most important competition of the year, there is something more personal about the conference meets that makes it more exciting. The FCIAC Championships were held on Thursday at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven and highlighted many of the best track and field athletes in Fairfield County.
The big winner of the day for the girls was Staples High, which won its first indoor FCIAC title since 1987, defeating a well-balanced Ridgefield team, 92.5-74. Staples didn't score in six events, but where it did score, it scored big. The Wreckers were once again led by junior Hannah Debalsi , who tripled for team points and won the 1,000m (3 minutes, 2.52 seconds), 1,600m (5:13.47) and 3,200m (10:50.41). While she scored a third of her team's points, Debalsi was not the only superstar for the Wreckers. Elizabeth Knoll tied the meet record in the high jump clearing 5 feet, 6 inches and came back to win the long jump in another pr of 16-8.5. Supporting her in the jumps were Bridget van Dorsten clearing five-feet even for second place, Ellen Hebrand for fifth and Sophia Corde clearing 8-6 in the pole vault for third for a grand total of 36.5 points in the jumping events. Erica Hefnawy added a runner-up finish in the 1,000m in 3:04 and ran legs of the third-place sprint medley and sixth-place 4x400m relay.
While Staples won with star power, Ridgefield took the runner-up spot with a well-balanced approach. According to coach John Goetz, they “earned their points without a single first place and just one second, but scoring in 14 of 15 events."
Darien's star Anna Sulger was a double-winner in the long sprints coming from behind and defeating Danbury's tenacious freshman Leah Sarkisian in the 600m with a 1:37.03 to 1:37.44. She came back to set the all-time FCIAC record in the 300m with a time of 40.43, defeating another Danbury runner Niema Riley, who had won the 55m earlier in the meet. It took four Danbury runners tying the meet record in the 4x200m (1:46.98) to keep Sulger from being a triple winner. Darien's other dominating performance was the state's top-ranked pole vaulter Madeleine Schneider, who cleared 11 feet to defeat her nearest rival by 2.5 feet.
In the shot put, Greenwich's Sarah Cicchetti continues to dominate the state and was three inches off her PR of 39-6, set at the SCC Coaches Invitational. The Boston-University bound senior has improved by leaps and bounds after being introduced to the sport only last winter. After throwing under 20 feet in her first meet, she began a rigorous study of the event by watching YouTube videos and learning all she could until she has doubled the distance of her throws and is on the verge of breaking the 40-foot mark.
Over the past 30 years, besides Danbury and Staples, only three other boys' teams have won the FCIAC Indoor Championship and this year kept that tradition alive. Danbury boys repeated their victory and, according to head boys coach Rob Murray, “the team just stepped up at the right time." He added that “scoring 100 points would have been a great day but the team surpassed my expectations." Staples and Ridgefield were expected to be in the mix and they scored 77 points to tie for runner-up honors. This marks Ridgefield's highest finish since 1987.
The Hatters got off to a great start, winning the 4x200 and 4x800 and then had Matt Andrew come off his 4x200m victory to take the 55m title as well. But the real secret to their success was the fact they scored in 12 of the 15 events and had multiple scorers in four events. Danbury claimed three silver medals in the jumps with All-Time FCIAC record holder Leland Roberts defeated by Westhill's Chris Rough and Villanova senior Mike Morrow taking two second places behind Anthony Bravo of Staples. It came down to a jump-off in the high jump and Bravo cleared 6-4 on his fourth attempt to take the victory in that event. But the highlight of the day for both of these rivals came in the long jump when Morrow set his personal record of 20-11 in the event, but was once again defeated when Bravo broke the All-Time FCIAC record with a monster leap of 23-10.
The long sprints were dominated by Jonathon Keating of Ridgefield who was coming off an injury earlier in the season yet still managed to win the 600m in 1:23.28, the 300m in 36.35 and anchored the winning 4x400m who ran 3:30.93. Ridgefield's other gold medal performances were claimed by Kristian Sogaard who won the 1,000m in 2:35.31, anchored their sprint medley and also ran a leg of the 4x400m.
Fairfield County's outstanding national class distance runners have been relatively quiet this winter after a long cross-country season. But the action is starting to heat up with meet records broken by multiple people in the two longest races. Junior Eric Van der Els of Brien McMahon has been quietly turning into one of the state's best runners but has been overshadowed by the multitude of great athletes the state seems to regularly produce the past few years. But, in the surprise of the meet, he outkicked All American Alex Ostberg of Darien with a 4:19.98 meet record in the 1,600m. Right behind him were the Darien distance duo of Ostberg and Armstrong Noonan who both broke the record, running 4:20.87 and 4:22.28.
As the saying goes, “you can't keep a good man down." The Darien duo got their revenge on Van der Els and both of them ran 9:23 to break Ostberg's record he set last year while the McMahon junior set a PR with a 9:27.
Evan Adams of Norwalk, who recently signed a National Letter of Intent to play football at Syracuse, continued to dominate the shot put. He broke his all-time PR with a heave of 53-9 to defeat his nearest competitor by four feet.
Next up for the FCIAC teams will be the state class meets, beginning on Thursday.