Under ideal conditions, about two dozen state leading
marks were set at the 37th Annual Dan O'Grady Relays held at Danbury
High School on Friday and Saturday.
The two day meet started off with a Connecticut state
record in the hammer throw. Brittany
Jones unfurled
a 163'0 which broke her own record she set the previous weekend
at the New York Relays. Jones was ranked
24th nationally. She was
challenged by her sometimes training partner Amanda Howe who set a big PR with
a 151'6, which is only a few feet short of the state record at the beginning of
the season.
Darien boys have had some outstanding distance runners over the past few years and they have shown they have the ability to replace their graduated runners. Their team of Jimmy Conroy, Griffin Ott, Alex Klarer and James Johnson broke the meet record in the 4 x 1600m with their 18:19.98. Johnson's split was a 4:26.55 which would have given him a big PR and the fastest time in the state if he ran it as a solo effort.
On Saturday, Danbury set the first meet record of the day with their 4 x 100m which has been tearing up the track early in the season. They barely missed their school record with their winning performance of 42.36 at the New York Relays last weekend. While they didn't better that time, the team Christopher Cledera, Sean-Michael Parkinson, Aaron Agosto, Edmond Olivacce still broke the meet record with a 42.71
The Ludlowe Fairfield boys 4 x 800m team of Colin Agostisi,
David Bates, Ben Ertel and Ian Bartlett took 
away one of Danbury's meet records
and held off the Hatters with their time of 8:04.38. Their effort also gives them the fastest time
in the state so far this season.
Trumbull had an outstanding behind the efforts of Tyler Gleen and Tyler Rubush. Both ran on the 2nd place 4 x 1600m on Friday night and came back and ran legs of the winning distance medley and sprint medley relays. In the DMR Gleen matched up once again with his Danbury rival and soon to be teammate at UConn, Terrell Cunningham. They handed off together right around 3:06. Danbury exchanged leads in the next two legs until the 1600m when Rubush powered to a 4:24 and had to hold off Masuk's Moetiz Shilleh who ran 4:22 for the 1600m distance. Both teams ran 10:25 and 10:26 to punch their ticket to New Balance Outdoor Nationals.
The Tyler's came back later in the day to run in the winning sprint medley and qualified for the championship section at National with their time of 3:33.68.
The Bloomfield girls only scored in seven events, but when you can win all seven, that's all you need. They defeated a strong Danbury team 70-63 off of their sprint relays, jumpers and throwers. They won the 4 x 100m in 48.20 and just missed the meet record by .06 seconds. They also took over the state lead in the 4 x 400m with a 4:04.67 and 4 x 200m running 1:43.35. Their long jump jump team was led by Jahleah Harris who jumped a state leading 17'9.5 and took a gold medal. They came back to win the triple jump as well.
But it is in the throws where the War Hawks are really
soaring. Brittany Jones set a personal
best in the shot with a 46'0.5 the day after her state record day in the
hammer. She even had a 48 foot foul
which caused groans from the crowd after it was called. To cap off her day, she led her discus
team to another victory with a 125'2 ft throw. In the process, she defeated
last year's State Open discus champions, Samantha Stevens by just over a foot. Her only downside to her day was that she
lost to last year's State Open runner up Amanda Howe who set a personal best of
133'5. Howe's throw took over the state
lead and earned a trip to NBON in North Carolina.
Danbury boys continued their outstanding year by winning their 4th straight O'Grady Relays. They only won the 4 x 100m and 4 x 200m but they finished top three in eight other events to pull ahead of Trumbull 78-58.
The following were the top performances over the two day meet. (Performances in bold are leading the state.)
HS GIRLS MARK ATHLETE TEAM
2,000 Meter Steeplechase Finals 7:44.57 Mary Bibbey Nonnewaug High
2,000 Meter Steeplechase Finals 7:58.13 Katelynn Romanchick Trumbull High School
4x1600 Meter Relay Finals 21:54.08 Relay Team Immaculate High
4x800 Meter Relay Finals 9:25.23 Relay Team Fairfield Ludlowe
4x800 Meter Relay Finals 9:25.95 Relay Team Ridgefield High
4x800 Meter Relay Finals 9:44.89 Relay Team Danbury High
Discus Finals 124-0 Samantha Stevens Shelton High
Discus Finals 125-2 Brittany Jones Bloomfield High
Discus Finals 133-5 Amanda Howe Southington High
Distance Medley Relay Finals 12:28.56 Relay Team Greenwich High
Hammer Throw Finals 151-6 Amanda Howe Southington High
Hammer Throw Finals 163-0 Brittany Jones Bloomfield High
Long Jump Finals 17-9.25 Adia Cavalier Bloomfield High
Long Jump Finals 17-9.5 Jahleah Harris Bloomfield High
Pole Vault Finals 10-6 Bridget Wirtz Branford High
Pole Vault Finals 10-6 Lia Zavattaro Greenwich High
Shot Put Finals 37-0.5 Lauryn Gause Brookfield High
Shot Put Finals 39-4 Samantha Stevens Shelton High School
Shot Put Finals 46-0.5 Brittany Jones Bloomfield High
Javelin Finals 114-7 Soph Jagoe-Seidl Saint Joseph High
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 4:22.88 Relay Team Windsor High School
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 4:26.35 Relay Team Amity High School
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 4:27.66 Relay Team Immaculate High
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 4:27.88 Relay Team Shelton High School
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay Finals 1:51.72 Relay Team Windsor High School
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay Finals 1:52.58 Relay Team Danbury High School
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay Finals 1:54.32 Relay Team Staples High School
Triple Jump Finals 36-4.5 Rachel Fleischer Derby High School
HS BOYS MARK ATHLETE TEAM
2,000 Meter Steeplechase Finals 6:32.16 Maximillian Sparks Canton High School
2,000 Meter Steeplechase Finals 6:32.83 Eli Nahom New Milford High
2,000 Meter Steeplechase Finals 6:40.32 Bradford Demassa Ridgefield High School
2,000 Meter Steeplechase Finals 6:43.64 Aidan O'donnell Canton High School
4x1600 Meter Relay Finals 18:19.98 Relay Team Darien High School
4x800 Meter Relay Finals 8:04.38 Relay Team Fairfield Ludlowe
Distance Medley Relay Finals 10:25.88 Relay Team Trumbull High
Distance Medley Relay Finals 10:26.50 Relay Team Masuk High School
Distance Medley Relay Finals 10:31.21 Relay Team Danbury High School
Distance Medley Relay Finals 10:38.04 Relay Team Joel Barlow High
Hammer Throw Finals 157-2 Christian Sturm Saint Paul High
Long Jump Finals 22-9.75 Jack Jones Trumbull High
Pole Vault Finals 14-0 Marc Deluca Westhill High
Triple Jump 45-1.25 Trae Lounsbury Seymour High
Triple Jump 45-2 Tumani Edwards Danbury High
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 3:33.68 Relay Team Trumbull High
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 3:37.00 Relay Team Immaculate High
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 3:37.75 Relay Team Derby High School
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 3:38.00 Relay Team Shelton High School
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 3:38.50 Relay Team Greenwich High
Sprint Medley Relay Finals 3:39.37 Relay Team Branford High
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay 1:34.84 Relay Team Shelton High School
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay 1:34.89 Relay Team Windsor High School
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay 1:35.87 Relay Team Immaculate High
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay 1:36.95 Relay Team Greenwich High
MS GIRLS MARK ATHLETE TEAM
800 Meter Run Finals 2:37.58 Alanna Smith Danbury Flyers
800 Meter Run Finals 2:39.00 Nicole Popham Danbury Flyers
Long Jump Finals 14-0 Kimberleigh Willi Danbury Flyers
Long Jump Finals 14-1 Samantha Pomeroy New Fairfield Flash
Long Jump Finals 14-1 Ashley Nicoletti Immaculate MS
Long Jump Finals 14-9.75 Courtney Dacunha New Fairfield Flash
Long Jump Finals 16-6.75 Tess Stapleton Roger Ludlowe Middle
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay Finals 2:07.45 Relay Team Danbury Flyers
800 Meter Sprint Medley Relay Finals 2:11.71 Relay Team Derby Middle School
MS BOYS MARK ATHLETE TEAM
800 Meter Run Finals 2:13.29 Schyler Parris Dayo Lightning
800 Meter Run Finals 2:19.31 Malachi Bruton Dayo Lightning
Long Jump Finals 16-0.75 Alex Kennedy New Fairfield Flash
Long Jump Finals 19-7 Carter Lambo Roger Ludlowe MS