MySportsResults.com Featured Meet Preview

ECC Championships - A Featured Meet Preview...
(May 18, 2007 - 12:30pm - By Ron Knapp)

MySportsResults.com presents another 2007 Featured Meet, the Eastern Connecticut Conference Championships, hosted by East Lyme High School with Coach Carl Reichards as Meet Director on Saturday, May 19, 2007. The Championship Meet will feature competition between almost 700 athletes of the eighteen boys and girls teams in the conference including Bacon Academy, East Lyme, Fitch, Griswold, Killingly, Ledyard, Lyman Memorial, Montville, New London, Norwich Free Academy, Plainfield, Putnam, St. Bernard, Stonington, Tourtellote, Waterford, Windham and Woodstock Academy. Defending team champions are the Boys and Girls teams from Norwich Free Academy coached by Jemal Davis and Kara Kochanski.

The top ranked athletes as posted in the online start lists include state leaders in the Pole Vault Patrick Wasczsak of Bacon Academy (14'3") and Jessica Sullivan of Norwich Free Academy (11'). In the High Jump, a pair of 6'4" jumpers lead the Boys with Ethan Salkiewicz of Tourtellote and Kyle Lane of E. Lyme.

The Long Jump features Eric Rathbun of Waterford (21'1.5") and Miguel Colon of NFA (21') for the Boys and in the Girl event, Jani Springer of East Lyme and Miranda Wallace of NFA at 16'1". Rathbun is top ranked in the Triple Jump at 41'10.5" followed by Tyrece Nickson of Windham (41'8") while the Girls event features the E. Lyme trio of Angel Anton (34'10"), Christy Nixon (34'9") and Anna Pudimat (34'4").

In the throwing events, Shawneil Thompson of Ledyard (47') will contend with Caleb Homiski of NFA in the Boys Shot Put while Christine Middletown of Bacon Academy seems to be the favorite at 39'11" in the Girl's Shot Put. In the Girl's Javelin Throw, the best in the state, Amanda Nappi of Windham, has a huge advantage over the competition with a 135'10" seed while in the Boy's Javelin Throw, there promises to be a good duel between top state throwers Ben Latham of Fitch (196'3") and Miles Snelgrove of Lyman Memorial (191'10). The Boy's Discus throw looks close as Caleb Homiski (138'1") and Chris Bregman (136'10") of NFA contend with Jeff Foster of E. Lyme (136'10"). The conference leader, Sharmaine Gregor of E. Lyme, is a top pick with a 134'7" seed mark in the Girl's Discus Throw.

The track events start with the 4x800m relays; the NFA boys quartet has a large advantage with a 8:10.24 seed time over Ledyard (8:28) while the Girl's 4x800m looks to be a two team race for first between NFA (9:45) and E. Lyme (9:55). The quick paced 4x100m relay features several teams in the final heat that could claim victory in both the Boys and Girls races as seed times are within seconds of each other - it will all depend on how well and how quickly each team moves the baton around the one lap. The straight-a-way sprint events features the hurdles first; the Boys 110m Hurdle race top seed is Jimmy Rosario of Windham (15.10) but challengers include Ryan Maher of Ledyard (15.40), Joe Toledo-Quiones of Fitch (15.70) and Sam Saccomano of Ledyard ( 15.80). The finals of the Girls 100m Hurdles should be a duel between Julia Saccone of Ledyard and Angel Anton of E. Lyme, both with seed times of 15.10. The title for fastest athlete in the 100m Dash is between Julian Stakey of Ledyard (11.00), Zach Martin of Woodstock Academy (11.10), Richie Hanson of Fitch (11.20) and Gary Ortega of Ledyard (11.20). The Girls 100m dash title also looks very competitive with Lauren LePage of NFA (12.60), Danielle Celotto of Ledyard (12.70) and Ariel Pelletier of Putnam (12.73).

The distance clash starts off with the Boys 1600m run between season rivals Jason Cusack of Griswold (4:28.50), Jake Sullivan of Fitch (4:29.30) and Tim Rosenbaum of Griswold (4:30.20). The Girls 1600m presents a trio of runners capable of taking home the win with Shelby Donahue of Griswold (5:10), Annie Scully of E. Lyme (5:10) and Cassy Hunter of NFA (5:14). The fast heat of the grueling 1-lap, 400m Dash includes Julian Stakey of Ledyard (49.97), Mike Miner of NFA (51.53) and Mike D'Elia of Windham (52.0). There are only two finalists in the Girls 400m under the 1-minute mark, Leah Clement (58.10) and Colleen Dolan (59.20), both of E. Lyme. In the longer 300m Hurdles events, the Boy's race for the win is between Tashon Davis of NFA (40.94) and Josh Johnson of Ledyard (41.20) while the Girls contest is highlighted by Angela Anton of E.Lyme (47.90) and Maggie McCarthy of Ledyard (48.0). The punishing Boys 800m Run looks like a sparring match between three athletes seeded under the 2-minute mark; Andrew Esposito of Ledyard, Jason Cusack of Griswold and Anthony Marceau of NFA. The Girl's 800m run presents a tough, close race between Annie Scully of E.Lyme, Shelby Donahue of Griswold and Amy Sinko of NFA, all seeded at 2:19 for the event.

In the final sprint event, the Boy's 200m Dash is highlighted by a pair of sub-23 second sprinters, Julian Stakey of Ledyard (22.83) and Corey Simpson of NFA (22.88). The Girl's 200m Dash features two top sprinters with Leah Clement of E. Lyme (26.50) and Amber Baker of Griswold (26.88). The final distance event, the 3200m run, features a Boy's race with top ranked Luke Albertson of NFA (9:48) challenged by Josh Porizky of Fitch, Andrew Cardin of NFA and Shawn Mulcahy of Lyman Memorial. The Girls 3200m run brings back Annie Scully of E. Lyme (11:18) who has to contend with the Troy sisters of Lyman Memorial, Dana and Samantha, as well as teammate Kelly Sorrell. In the meet's final events, the Boy's 4x400m relay includes three teams at 3:33 or better led by NFA and followed by Windham and Ledyard. The Girl's 4x400m relay features a duel between top seed E. Lyme (4:05.3) and NFA (4:10) for the top place.
Click to view more information at the 2007 ECC Championship Meet website