Hatters dominate weather-delayed CIAC state open track meets.
By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
Danbury High dominated the weather-delayed CIAC state open track meets conducted Wednesday in New Britain.
The Hatters won both the boys’ and girls’ team titles at the competition, which was postponed because of a heat wave in Connecticut which sent temperatures into the high 90s four days in a row.
The Danbury boys scored 60 points to 39 for runner-up Manchester, while the girls had 58 to finish in front of Weaver-Hartford (50).
Parker Bourdeau led the Danbury boys with a new meet record 1:50.86 in the 800-meter run, breaking the mark of 1:51.66 set in 1986 by Mike Remigino of Northwest Catholic-West Hartford. Remigino had a better time (1:49.95) in the 1987 CIAC Class S state meet.
Bourdeau’s teammate, Willie Ahearn, also set a state open record of 4:11.97 in winning the 1,600-meter run. That topped the 4:14.80 set two years ago by John Loeser of Weston, but did not press the overall state record of 4:07.26, set in 1980 by Kevin King of Westill-Stamford.
Danbury also was second in the 4x800-meter relay with a team of Dan Bubniak, Cody Rahphael, Justin Rau and Doug Ronan running 7:56.16. Glastonbury won in 7:55.94. Those three events accounted for 28 of Danbury’s 60 points.
No one was able to capture two events for the boys. The 100-meter dash went to Ridgefield sophomore Connor P. McCarthy in 10.58; the 200 was won by Dominic Smith of Bloomfield in 21.51 and the 400 by Weaver’s Daundre Barnaby in 47.76. Glastonbury’s Donn Cabral won the 3,200 in 9:12.79.
Jean-Louis Bertony of Brien McMahon-Norwalk took the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.44 while the 300-meter intermediates went to Marcus Aiken of St. Paul-Bristol in 38.77.
Middletown won the 4x100-meter relay in 42.54 while the 4x400 went to Manchester in 3:21.14.
Ben Rosa of Staples-Westport was one of five high jumpers to clear 6-feet-4 but won on the basis of fewest misses. The pole vault went to Windham Tech’s Matt Alexander at 14-6, the long jump to Jeremy Ragsdale of Bunnell-Stratford at 22-10.5 and the triple jump to Michael Hartfield of Manchester, who leaped 48-7.25.
Winning the shot put title was New Britain’s Emmanuel McFadden at 53-5 while Kyle Cholewa of Griswold threw the discus 155-feet and Ben Latham of Fitch-Groton won the javelin at 204-5.
Danbury scored 126 points to outdistance Manchester (73) in the Class LL state meet while Staples-Westport nosed out Amity Regional-Woodbridge, 63-60, to win in Class L.
Wethersfield scored 91 to win Class MM with Weaver (72) second; Seymour scored 72.5 to win Class M with East Catholic-Manchester second with 68 and Bloomfield’s 108 was good for the win in Class S. Old Saybrook (57) was a distant second.
Girls
The Danbury girls got only one individual win. Sprinter Shelby Walton ran 11.96 to take the 100-meter dash. Teyanna Green and Charisma Green went 2-3 in the 200-meters as well. The Hatters added 20 more points with two relay firsts.
Deborah Dorcemus, the sisters Green and Maya Walton ran 46.62 to set state open and overall state records in the 4x100-meter relay. Career-New Haven had the old overall mark at 47.27 and Wilbur Cross-New Haven held the open mark at 47.70. Second-place finisher Weaver (47.25) also broke both records.
Danbury’s team of Jessica Berry, Emily Campbell, Dorcemus and Charisma Green ran 3:54.69 to win the 4x400-meter relay.
Unlike the boys, the girls had several multiple-event winners. Anna Shields of Lewis Mills-Burlington, set a meet record of 4:55.11 in winning the 1,600-meters. The old mark of 4:55.67 was set in 2002 by Meghan Owen of Killingly. Shields ran 10:50.27 to win the 3,200-meters as well.
Ann Marie Clarke of Hillhouse-New Haven, won the 400-meter run in 57.11 and then took the 100-meter high hurdles in 14.57.
Others who won running events included Chelsea Jubrey of Rockville in the 200-meters (24.68), Leah Clement of East Lyme in the 800-meters (2:12.98) and Catherine Milledge of Weaver-Hartford in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles (44.70). Glastonbury ran 9:28.02 to win the 4x800-meter relay.
Jasmine Cribb of Naugatuck cleared 5-feet-7 to win the high jump, Kim Johnson of Norwich Free Adademy won the pole vault at 11-feet on misses, Quenia Spivey of Mercy-Middletown did 18-7 to take the long jump and Ashley Matakevich of Bunnell-Stratford won the triple jump at 36-1.
Rachel Aliotta of Cheshire edged Athalia Smith of New Britain to win the shot-put. Both had best throws of 41-4.5 but Aliotta’s second-best of 41-0 beat Smith’s 39-1 for the spot. Rachel Taback of Newtown won the discus at 115-0 and Kristianna Ibsen of Shelton took the javelin at 138-2.
In the divisional meets, Norwich Free Academy scored 91 to Danbury’s 88 to win Class LL while East Lyme’s 86.5 bested Rockville’s 70 in Class L. Darien scored 121.5 to beat Weaver-Hartford (98) in Class MM; Weston won Class M with 88.5 with Tolland (60) second and Bloomfield outscored Northwest Catholic-West Hartford, 84-71.5 to win Class S.
