An elite group of Connecticut's athletes traveled a bit westward to the New York State Showcase meet during the past weekend and laid down some huge performances, some of them record-breaking.
Among the the athletes shattering old standards was our cover photo athlete Sydney Masciarelli of Marianapolis Prep of Thompson, CT who outsplashed the rest of the field in the 2K steeplechase by almost 40 seconds and clocked a time of 6:25.35 to set a national record. Though Massachusetts native Masciarelli runs for a school located in CT, her time is not recognized as a state record (officially still 6:52.54) by the CIAC because Marianopolis is not part of the organization. Note that an athlete does not have to be citizen of the state their school is in, and for instance a ton of NY's state HS records are held by citizens of Caribbean and South American countries.
A guy who did get both a big win and an official state record was Wolcott senior Nick Bendtsen who crushed the field in the championship 2 Mile event, winning by more than 20 seconds for a US #3 time of 8:53.15 to break the old mark of 8:53.49 by Eric Van Der Els in 2016.
Two other CT distance guys leaving as winners were Avon's Jack Martin who ran a CT #5 time of 1:53.71 to capture the championship 800m race and New Fairfield's Patrick Gibbons who took the championship Mile in 4:18.67.
The top performance by a CT relay team was by the Ridgefield guys' 4x800m squad which clocked a CT #1 7:45.53 to take the win. Coventry's Alex Krause was 2nd in the hammer throw with a big toss of 196-9.
After taking the 100m-200m-400m triple at the CIAC Open, Danbury's Alanna Smith was back at it at the Showcase and was the top athlete in the 100m and 200m not from Bullis of MD, as she placed 3rd in both events with PRs of 11.83 and 24.21, and she also got a 2nd in the 400m. Greenwich's Mari Noble also picked up a bunch of PRs, getting 4th in the mile at 4:55.66 while also getting an en-route 1500m best at 4:36.04, and she was 6th in the 800m at a PR of 2:16.51.
The girls 4x100m team of Danbury was 2nd, as was the Mercy 4x400m squad. Tops among the CT field events athletes was New Milford's Anichka Malachi with a 3rd in the triple jump.