Boys FCIAC Wrap Up
The Danbury boys won their 5th straight FCIAC title over surprise runner up Ridgefield, 88-53 with Staples right behind with 50 points. While this was one of the lowest winning scores in several years, the meet featured four meet records.
The 1000m went out hard, but Staples's William Landowne bided his time and took over with a strong finishing kick winning in 2:31.30 to break Henry Wynne's record by .36 seconds.
Christopher Colbert of Wilton pulled away on the final straightaway to win the 300m in 35.46 to break Shnyden Pierre of McMahon's record by .04 seconds.
The Wreckers took another record down when Chet Ellis soared
over 6'6 on his final attempt in the high
jump.
Danbury's 4 x 400m relay ran the final meet record of the evening with the team of Glenroy Ford, Sean-Michael Parkinson, Malachius Lorick and Malcolm Going slicing .33 seconds off their time last year running 3:29.80.
The record setting performances weren't even the most notable performances of the evening. Besides Landowne's record in the 1000m, he came back and had to run against a ghost in the 1600m. Warde's Alex Mocarski put up an indoor PR of 4:20.39 in the previous heat. Landowne has run a 4:20.29 at the Hispanic Games earlier in the season, but after running the fast 1k earlier in the meet, the senior had to push himself over the final laps to take the win in 4:19.98.
The shot put and the pole vault offered two surprise wins. Ridgefield's Justin Showstead threw a 4 ½ foot personal record of 49'10.5 to defeat defending champion Jack Connelly of New Canaan who also set a PR of 48'9. Showstead improved from 6th last year at FCIACs to take the crown.
In the vault, Jackson Hemphill of Fairfield Ludlowe took 8th last year with a jump of 10 feet as a sophomore. Fast forward one year later and Hemphill cleared 13-00 to take his 1st FCIAC championship.
The Hatters won the team title behind the efforts of Christopher Cledera who won the 55m in 6.65, Malcolm Going taking the 600m in 1:26.14, Daniel Nichols running a PR of 9:40.37 to win the 3200m and their 4 x 400m for 40 of their 88 points. But the real reason for their success was the fact they were able to score in 13 of 15 events to reveal the most balanced team in the conference.
Ridgefield upset Staples for 2nd with Showstead win in the shot put and 4 x 200m relay of Ian Dyson, James Kane, Mitchell van der Noll and Francisco Turdera running 1:35.53. The Tigers also received 2nd place performances from Thomas Vilinskis' PR of 8.08 in the 55HH, Oliver Hayes with a 12'6 vault and the 4 x 40m of Simon Jupp, Kevin Arnold, Mitchell van der Noll and James Kane who finished in 3:32.35.
