The CT contingent was out in force at the New England Championship on Saturday June 11th as the athletes and teams tallied up well over half of the wins in the battle of the six states. The boys took eight titles and the girls were an even more dominating twelve-win machine. Even when the CT tracksters were not winning they might still post a CT #1 time on the year. Five days after the CIAC Open and back again at Willow Brook Park in perhaps a slightly more relaxed setting, a number of athletes also bettered their state championship mark by nice margins.
CT champs included:
Boys
- Colin Brown (Cheshire) got the 100m win with a 10.85 time, .04 better than on Monday.
- Samuel Sandler (Hall) captured the 400m after placing 2nd to Andrew O'Donnell at the Open. Sandler's 47.93 knocked more than a half second off his time on Monday. He also ran a leg on Hall's champion 4x400 squad.
- Michael Johnson (Lewis Mills) held off Open winner Joshua Mooney by .13 in the 110m hurdles with a CT #1 14.53. Johnson also picked up a 2nd in the 300H, and Mooney was 8th in the javelin.
- Hall beat out Open winner EO Smith in the 4x800m with a CT #1 of 7:50.30. The Warriors then repeated their Open winning effort in the 4x400m with 3:18.92 time.
- Timothy Watson (Simsbury) repeated his Open win in the high jump as her took the title at 6-9. Ese Onakpoma (Naugatuck) was 4 inches lower at 6-5 to pick up one of his two silver medals on the day.
- Holden Speed (Wethersfield) repeated his Open triumph with a 47-3.75 leap as Ese Onakpoma was 5 inches back in 2nd.
- Gary Moore Jr (Hillhouse) repeated his Open win in the discus at 187-9, beating out his RI throwing buddy Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan.
- Three guys who got PRs while taking silver medals included Callum Sherry (Conard) who ran a CT #1 4:07.13 in a narrow loss in the 1600m, Nicholas Rivard-Lentz (East Hampton) hit 14-3 in the pole vault, and Jack Freyler (Southington) tossed a 185-5 mark in the javelin.
Girls
- Alanna Smith (Danbury) not only repeated her Open win in the 100m at 11.96, but she also ran considerably better in the 200m to pick up a second gold there with a 24.09 time.
- Sydney Segalla (Housatonic Regional) bettered her Open winning time in the 400m with a 53.27 and then picked up the silver behind Alanna Smith in the 200m.
- Gabriella Hernandez (EO Smith) beat out Olivia Birney for the 800m title with a PR 2:10.63. Hernandez also anchored EO Smith to gold in the 4x800m and 5th in the 4x400m, while Birney helped Simsbury get two 6th places in the same two relays.
- Rachel St. Germain (Somers) got a CT #1 while taking the 3200m race at 10:32.28.
- Amanda Castaldi (Sheehan) came up from a 3rd place at the Open to capture the NE title with a PR of 14.78. She also ran a leg for the Titans' champion 4x100m squad.
- The Sheehan 4x100m squad of Patrice Mansfield, Amanda Castaldi, Maya Wresian, and Avery Winters repeated their Open win with a CT #1 time of 48.08 to beat out the Old Saybrook team of Abigail Colella, Avery Rueckert, Sanai Baker, and Anna Brodeur .
- Glastonbury got the the CT #1 time in and repeated its Open win in the 4x400m as the squad of Alyssa Healy, Meghan Smith, Hannah Caiola, and Molly Harding ran a 3:54.37.
- The EO Smith 4x800m team of Elizabeth Bigelow, Alexis Buskey, Jillian Dingler, and Gabriella Hernandez ran a CT #1 time of 9:11.79 to repeat its Open win. In 2nd through 6th were Weston, Glastonbury, Bethel, Guilford, and Simsbury.
- D'Jior Delisser got a CT #1 while repeating her Open win with a 19-5.75 leap in the long jump that was only 2.25 inches off a state record.
- Shea Greene (Weston) got the CT #1 in the javelin while repeating her Open win with a throw of 152-1.
- Other athletes having especially big days on Saturday included Emily Mrakovcic (Wilton) who came back from a tumble at the Open to place 3rd in the NE 1600m with a PR of 4:58.39, Mariella Schweitzer (Joel Barlow) and Allison Murphy (Naugatuck) who placed 2nd and 3rd in the 300H, Audrey Kirkutis (Conard) who took silver in the high jump at a near-best 5-7, Talia Graham (Bethel) who got the bronze in the pole vault, Laniyah Henderson (Bloomfield) who got 3rd in the triple jump, and Olivia O'Connor (Hillhouse) took 3rd in the discus.