WFSB-TV and CPTV will team to air boys' and girls' championship games; Hillhouse, Danbury take indoor track titles.
By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
WFSB-TV (Channel 3) and Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) have announced a joint venture to be called Connecticut Sports Network, which will televise all eight state championship games in high school boys’ and girls’ basketball. The fledgling network will make its real debut in September with live and delayed broadcasts of a variety of sports events as well as things like coaches’ shows.
The games will not be available to everyone in the state. WFSB will air either the Class LL or Class L championship game from the University of Connecticut’s Gampel Pavilion Saturday, March 15 at 8:15 p.m. The determination will not be made until after the semifinals. The other game at Gampel and the two finals at Detrick Gymnasium at Central Connecticut State University, will be on WFSB’s digital channel Eyewitness News Now, which is not available on all cable systems, nor via commercial satellite set-ups. The tentative schedule calls for rebroadcasts March 16, also on the Eyewitness News Now channel.
The four girls’ championship games Saturday, March 8, will be on CPTV’s digital channel CPTV2, live beginning at 11 a.m. They will be rebroadcast March 9 on CPTV itself from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Games also will be available via the internet at www.ctsn.tv.
CPTV broadcast the six CIAC football state championship games in December, both live and via tape delay and ratings reportedly were in the 1.5 to 3.0 range.
Indoor Track
The Hillhouse-New Haven girls and the Danbury boys won their respective CIAC state open indoor track team titles last weekend in New Haven.
Indiana-bound Ann-Marie Clarke was the leader for Hillhouse. She won the 55-meter hurdles in 0:08.29 and the 300-meter dash in 0:40.17 and ran the anchor leg on the winning 4x400-meter relay team to account for 30 of the Academics’ 36 points.
Glastonbury finished second among the girls with 33 points while Danbury and Weaver-Hartford tied for third with 30.
There were four meet records set on the girls’ side and in addition, Shelby Walton of Danbury ran the 55-meter dash in 0:07.09 to tie the record set by Shantea Calhoun of Wilbur Cross-New Haven. The new marks: 1:35.06 by Annelies Gamble of Amity Regional-Woodbridge in the 600-meters; 2:58.81 by Anna Shields of Lewis Mills-Burlington in the 1000-meters; 10:52.78 by Heather Stephens of Ridgefield in the 3200 and 1:43.88 by the Danbury 4x200-meter relay team of Walton, Teyanna Green, Deborah Dorcemus and Charisma Green. Shields, who also won the 1600, was the meet’s only double winner besides Clarke.
On the boys’ side, Danbury scored 71, more than twice as many as 31 for runner-up Wilbur Cross-New Haven.
Two of the four meet records went to Danbury runners. Willie Ahearn won the 1600-meters in 4:13.29 and Parker Bodreau took the 1000-meters in 2:29.10. Matt Marriott of Staples-Westport won the 600 in 1:22.36 and Wilbur Cross took the 1600-meter sprint medley relay in 3:38.13. The four runners were Lawrence Howard, Maurice Morrison, Malcolm Green and Cas Loxsom. The boys had no multiple winners.
Wrestling
The four CIAC Divisional wrestling championships were conducted over the weekend.
In Class LL, Danbury ran away from the field with 296 points for its 12th straight divisional title. The Hatters had individual champs in Charles Constanzo at 119 pounds, Tucker Schaefer at 140, Dean Smith at 152, and Humphrey Swift at 285.
The fastest fall award went to South Windsor 285-pounder Seth Rothberg, who had four pins in 5:04. He finished third. Amity Regional-Woodbridge finished second in the team scoring with 159 points and Simsbury was third with 148.5.
Middletown won its second straight Class L championship with 177.5 points, turning the tables on Berlin, which had beaten Middletown for the Northwest Conference tournament title the week before. The Redcoats had 164, New Milford had 160.5 and Daniel Hand-Madison scored 159. Richard Perry at 215 pounds won the only individual title for Middletown. New Milford (Cody Griswold at 171 and Michael Bellgamba at 152) and Hand (Brian Onofrio at 135 and Derek Fish at 145) had two winners each. Bellagamba was named as the outstanding wrestler.
In Class M, Ledyard scored 200 points to outdistance Windham (176) and Jonathan Law-Milford (151). C.J. Satti at 140 and Shane Sullivan at 145 gave the Colonels consecutive winners and Julian Hightower won at 189.
The Class S title went to Killingly with 143.5 points with Montville second with 137. Nonnewaug-Woodbury had 131 and Derby 129.
Brandon Thurotte at 119 and Nick Herrick at 152 took individual titles for Killingly while Robert Butcher of Morgan-Clinton, the 140-pound champ, was named the most outstanding wrestler.
