NEW HAVEN – The Greenwich girls and Danbury boys’ indoor track and field teams had Triple Crown seasons after they both recently added the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference State Open and CIAC Class LL team titles to the FCIAC championships they previously won.
Emily Philippides and Genevieve DeWinter were superb in the postseason, including both of those seniors getting several individual victories and being members of winning relay teams to lead the Greenwich girls program to its first state Class LL and State Open team titles in school history.
Conference teams finished 1-2 in team scoring at the CIAC State Open Girls Indoor Track and Field Championships at Hillhouse High School’s Floyd Little Athletic Center on Feb. 17. Greenwich racked up 56 points and Danbury placed second with 32 points.
Hillhouse and Hamden tied for third place with 28 points and Fairfield Ludlowe took sixth with 20 points as the third FCIAC team among the top six.
Philippides won the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 58.08 seconds. She ran the anchor leg on the victorious 1,600 sprint medley relay team (4:18.18) after Olivia Caan, Maggie O’Gorman and Zoe Harris turned in their strong legs. Philippides, DeWinter and Harris were joined by Jordan Numme on the runner-up 4×400 relay (4:03.28).
Also for Greenwich at the State Open, DeWinter won the 600 in 1:35.93 and anchored the runner-up 4×800 relay team (9:32.19) which included Meghan Lynch, Hetty McMillan and Harris, and pole vaulter Lia Zavattaro placed second with a vault of 11 feet, six inches.
For Greenwich at the Class LL championship meet, Philippides ran faster than she would run at the Open when she won the 1,000 in 2:57.9, DeWinter won the 600, the Cardinals had the same relay lineups they utilized at the Open when won the 4×400 (4:02.45), 4×800 (9:27.3) and 1,600 sprint medley, Zavattaro was the pole vault runner-up and the trio of McMillan, Caroline Webb and Lynch placed 3-5 in the 3,200.
Lauren Moore led Danbury’s girls to second place at the State Open when she won the 1,600 (5:07.21) and placed fourth in the 3,200 (11:20.48).
Also for Danbury at the State Open, Cassandra Sturdevant was runner-up in the 1,000 (3:04.13), Celyna Custodio placed third in the shot put (38-10.75), while Leah Sarkisian (600, 1:37.89) and Meilee Kry (long jump, 17-0.5) each placed fifth in their respective events.
Previous to the State Open, Greenwich (85.5 points), Danbury (71) and Ludlowe (56) took the top three spots in team scoring at the girls Class LL championships and there were four FCIAC teams among the top five as Brien McMahon (30) was fifth.
Moore swept the 1,600 and 3,200 (11:13.55) to lead Danbury’s Hatters to second place.
Also for Danbury at the state Class L championships, Sturdevant took second in the 1,000, Custodio (shot put) and Kry (long jump) each placed third in their respective events and Sarkisian was fourth in the 600.
Many more athletes from several more girls’ FCIAC teams either had victories or placed very high in both of the state championship meets.
Fairfield Ludlowe’s fabulous freshman Tess Stapleton won the Open 55 hurdles in 8.36 a week after she racked up 24 team points for the Falcons at the Class LL championships with a victory in the long jump (17-10), a runner-up in the hurdles and a third place in the high jump.
Maya Mocarski of Ludlowe won the Class LL 55-dash in 7.19.
Also for the Falcons, Alyssa Kraus placed fourth in the State Open 1,000 (3:04.81) a week after she was third in the event at the Class LL meet and teammate Nora Skoczen was third in the Class LL 55 hurdles.
Brien McMahon’s Peyton McNamara placed third in the long jump (17.275) at the State Open a week after she anchored McMahon’s winning 4×200 relay team (1:48.38) which included Savannah Bromley, Jazmijn Bien-Aime and Chloe Ortalano. The victorious Senators nipped the runner-up Greenwich team by just 1/100th of a second and that prevented Greenwich from sweeping all four relays.
St. Joseph’s Olivia Johnson placed fourth in the State Open long jump (17-2.5) after she was runner-up (17-0.5) in the Class M meet.
Emma Langis of Ridgefield was runner-up in the 600 (1:37.08) and then third in the 600 at the State Open.
Stamford’s Earthaiza Watkins placed third in the Class LL 300 (41.76).
At the girls Class L championship meet, New Canaan’s Julia Ozimek (3:07.39 in the 1,000) and Wilton’s Shelby Dejana (8.87 in the 55 hurdles) both placed second in their respective events while Wilton’s
The girls and boys State Open meets took place simultaneously Feb. 17 at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.
Malcolm Going won the 600-meter run with a time of 1:20.4 and was a member of a victorious and a runner-up relay team to lead the Danbury boys’ team to the CIAC State Open team title.
Danbury scored 44 points to finish seven points ahead of runner-up Hall at the State Open. Derby placed third with 26 and FCIAC member Staples was fourth with 24.
Going ran the anchor leg to seal the 4×400 relay victory in 3:38.55 after Sean-Michael Parkinson, Glenroy Ford and Malachius Lorick ran strong legs. That same quartet earlier placed second in the 4×200 relay (1:33.54) at the Open. A week earlier that group swept both relays at the Class LL championship meet.
Daniel Nichols (3,200 in 9:18.98) and Nathaniel Llanos (pole vault, 14 feet) each had runner-up finishes at the State Open for the Hatters to improve on their third-place finishes in their respective events at the Class LL meet.
Going won the 600 and Parkinson placed second in the 300 (36.72) at the Class LL meet when the Hatters totaled 52 points and led a sweep of FCIAC teams in the top three spots.
Staples was runner-up with 37 and Ridgefield scored 32 to place third.
Danbury won the State Open and Class LL meets for the third straight year. The Hatters have won 13 State Open and 13 class championship meets as they have won a state class meet and then followed it up with a State Open title in the same year 13 times since they won their first titles in both meets in 1998.
Danbury led a sweep of FCIAC teams finishing in the top three places in the Class LL team scoring. The Hatters won with 52 points, 15 more than runner-up Staples, and Ridgefield placed third with 32.
Staples senior middle distance runner William Landowne and junior teammate Chet Ellis each had a strong pair of championship meets – each getting individual victories in the state Class LL meet and runner-up finishes in the State Open.
Landowne swept the 1,000 (2:31.51) and 1,600 (4:22.03) to lead the Wreckers to second place at the Class LL meet and a week later at the State Open he placed second in the 1,000 (2:31.79) and 1,600. When Landowne improved his 1,600 time by 4.75 seconds at the Open, his time of 4:17.28 was identical to that of Hall’s Miller Anderson but Anderson was declared the winner in the photo finish and it was officially ruled that Miller ran a scant 0.001 of a second faster than Landowne.
Ellis won the Class LL high jump when he cleared 6 feet, 4 inches and he improved by two inches with his 6-6 runner-up finish in the Open.
Danbury’s Going was the only FCIAC athlete who won an individual event in the boys’ State Open while Going, Landowne and Ellis were the conference’s three individual champions in any of the boys state class championship meets.
But there were many more FCIAC boys who had very high finishes in their respective events at the state class and State Open meets.
Ridgefield’s quartet of Mitchell van der Noll, Francisco Turdera, Simon Jupp and Kevin Arnold teamed up to win the 1,600 sprint medley relay in 3:40.84 and their teammate Thomas Vilinskis placed second in the 55-meter hurdles to lead the Tigers to third place in the Class LL meet.
Jack Jones of Trumbull was the Class LL long jump champion with a jump of 21 feet, 9 ½ inches and third with a 21-7.75 at the State Open.
Fairfield Warde’s James Maniscalco placed fourth in the 1,600 (4:22.32) and fifth in the 3,200 (9:26.13) at the State Open after he was third in the Class LL 1,600 (4:27.58) just behind his runner-up teammate Alex Mocarski.
Also for Warde, Jackson placed fourth in the pole vault (13 feet) at the State Open after he was sixth in the Class LL meet.
Ian Bartlett of Fairfield Ludlowe placed third in both meets in the 1,000, running a 2:32.81 at the Class LL meet and then lowering his time to 2:32.34 at the State Open.
New Canaan’s Sean Knight placed fifth in the State Open 55 hurdles (7.86) after he was runner-up at the Class L meet and Jack Conley was runner-up in the Class L shot put (49-0).
Darien’s Kayin Chisolm placed second in the high jump (6-0) and third in the pole vault (13-0) at the boys Class L meet.
Christopher Colbert of Wilton was runner-up in the Class L 300 (35.43) and then third (35.71) at the State Open.
Landowne of Staples, Danbury’s Goings and Greenwich’s Philippedes all won their respective races this past weekend at the 31st New England Interscholastic Indoor Track and Field Championship at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston.
Several more FCIAC athletes also earned All-New England honors by placing among the top six in their respective events.
Landowne, a senior, won the boys mile with a personal-best time of 4 minutes, 12.49 seconds.
Goings, a junior, also achieved a personal record when he won the boys 600-meter run in 1:20.38. Goings also anchored Danbury’s victorious 4×400 relay after leadoff runner Parkinson handed the baton to Ford, who relayed it to Lorick. They Hatters won the third heat in 3:25.26 to barely hold off fourth-heat winner Newton North (3:25.27) by just 1/100th of a second for the victory.
Philippedes strode in stalking position throughout most of the girls 1,000 and then utilized a strong finishing kick to pass the leaders on the last lap and win in 2:51.3 and improve on last year’s runner-up finish.
Fairfield Ludlowe’s Bartlett was runner-up in the boys 1,000 (2:28.72) and Ludlowe’s Stapleton was third in the girls 55-meter hurdles (8.47).
Ridgefield’s Langis (1:35.71) and Danbury’s Sarkisian (1:36.5) placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the girls 600.
The other FCIAC athletes who achieved All-New England honors included Staples High’s Ellis (third in the boys’ high jump, 6-5) Danbury’s Moore (fourth in the girls’ mile, 5:05.31), St. Joseph’s Johnson (sixth in the girls long jump, 17-6.5) and Wilton’s Colbert (sixth in the boys 600, 35.33).