23rd annual Dan O’Grady Relays 

at Brookfield High, Brookfield CT

Great day at the O’Grady’s
Danbury track and field teams dominate 
By Lenn Zonder 
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-TIMES 

BOYS RESULTS, GIRLS RESULTS

BROOKFIELD — The Danbury High boys and girls track and field teams showed Saturday they haven’t lost a step since winning smashing victories in the Class LL and State Open indoor championships in late February. 
In their first major test of the spring season, both teams displayed depth and muscle to outlast 48 other teams and capture the 23rd annual Dan O’Grady Relays at Brookfield High. 

Named for the former coach of the Danbury Hatters, the meet stresses teamwork and effort. 

Every race is a four-man relay, and even field events require the total accumulation of distance by three or four people. 

The Danbury boys scored 66 points, 23 more than second-place Staples of Westport, and 24 points more than third-place finisher, Hyde Leadership School of Hamden. 

It was a little closer in the girls open division, but the Hatters (62) still prevailed by 15 over Nonnewaug of Woodbury (47) and 16 over Hillhouse of New Haven (46). 

In addition to winning the overall meet championships, both Danbury teams also won the large school championships. Bethel’s boys team won the ‘B’ division (middle size) championship, and Coginchaug put up a meet best 102 points to win the boys’ small school crown. 

The Hillhouse girls won the middle school crown with 74 division points, and Coginchaug swept to the small school title with 84 points. 

“The nice thing about this meet, we were able to show our depth,” Danbury High girls coach Kevin Wilcox said. 

“Krissy Weaver set a new school record in the pole vault, with an effort of 7-6”, Wilcox added. “Stacey Egbert jumped 17-1 in the long jump. Heather Bourcault did a split of 59 seconds in the 400-meter run, Whitney Dunbar ran a personal best of 5:25 in the 1,600. Kyra James threw the discus 224-8.” 

The target for the boys team was similar to the girls. Danbury High boys coach Rob Murray said his first goal was to cover all the events, and second, to win the meet, something the Hatters hadn’t done in close to a decade. 

“We set meet records in the pole vault with Alex VerHuel, Jay Juh and Leon Breece,” Murray said, “and we set a new school record in the 4x400. We also put together a 4x1600, DMR and a 4x200 that qualify in the top 10 all times best in school history. It was a good day.” 

The essence of the O’Grady’s is that coaches have the opportunity to evaluate their personnel in ways they can’t during the rest of the season. Runners are limited to two events and coaches are forced to use freshmen and sophomores in places they would normally use upperclassmen. 

“In normal meets every person has to do four events,” Bethel boys coach Yvonne Grimes said. “The O’Grady’s give me a chance to see what these kids can really do. This gives me an idea what everybody can do. It’s a primer for what everybody can do later in league and class meets.” 

Three of Grimes’ athletes suffered a disappointment during the meet. 

John Bara, Adam Pinella and Sean MacNeil left the discus venue thinking they had won the event, only to find out later that an adding mistake was made. Instead of winning, they finished nine inches short of Danbury’s three-man effort of 335-2. 

“We’ve stepped it up every meet and are working harder everyday so we can leave something good behind when we graduate,’’ Bara said. 

Pinella said it wasn’t his best. 

All three boys agreed. 

Nonetheless, Grimes wasn’t disappointed and feels she sees the three racking up strong point totals over the last two months of the season. 

The pole vault took longer to complete than anticipated Saturday. Thirty-nine boys competed in the event and 27 girls. It was the first time for girls that the event has been run in an open setting. 

Leah Williams of Brookfield set a new girls record of 9-6, and Alex VerHuel of Danbury tied the boys meet and Danbury school record with his jump of 13 feet. Relays limit runners to just two races and the 8x100 relay, a specialty of the program.

Boys Results

Boys team results: 1. Danbury 66, 2. Staples 43, 3. Hyde Leadership School 42, 4. New Milford 38, 5. Coginchaug 34.5, 6. Bethel 30, 7. Pomperaug 23, 8. Bloomfield 22, 9. Brookfield 15, 10. Naugatuck 14, 11. Torrington 12, 12. Hopkins 10, 13. (tie) Wilton, Fairfield Prep 8, 14. Holy Cross 3, 15. Wilby 2, 16, Weston, New Fairfield 1, 

4x1600: 1. New Milford 18:51.6; 2. Danbury 18:57.2; 3. Coginchaug 19:00.9; 4. Wilton 19:24.3; 5. Staples 19:37.5; 6. Naugatuck 19:42.5. 

4x800: 1. Coginchaug 8:27.4; 2. New Milford 8:30.3; 3. Naugatuck 8:35.0; 4. Staples 8:37.2; 5. Nonnewaug 8:37.6; Danbury 8:38.9. 

4x400: 1. Danbury 3:29.5; 2. Staples 3:32.9; 3. Coginchaug 3:33.3; 4. Bloomfield 3:36.6; 5. Wilby 3;39.3; 6. Weston 3:46.1. 

4x200: 1. Danbury 1:35.9; 2. Hyde 1:37.7; 3. Staples 1;38.6; 4. Pomperaug 1:38.7; 5 (tie) holy Cross, Nonnewaug 1:38.9. 

300-hurdles: 1. Danbury 2:13.3; 2. Bethel 2:14.1; 3. Pomperaug 2:15.8; 4. Torrington 2:16.5; 6. (tie) Holy Cross, Coginchaug 2:21.7. 

4X100: 1. Hyde 44.3; 2. Bloomfield 44.4; 3. Bethel 44.7; 4. Pomperaug. 5. Danbury 45.1; 6. Staples 45.1. 

Distance medley relay: 1. Hopkins 11’04.9; 2. Torrington 11:07.5; 3. Staples 11:14.5; 4. Danbury 11:19.4; 5. Pomperaug 11:22.1; 6. New Milford 12’10.1. 

High jump: 1. Brookfield 16’8.0; 2. Fairfield Prep 16’4.0; 3. Naugatuck 16’2.0; 4. (tie) New Milford, Pomperaug 16’0.0; 6. Danbury 15’10.0. 

Shot put: 1. Staples 122’10.0; 2. Hyde 114:05.0; 3. Bethel 114’1.0; 4. Danbury 111:08.0; 5. Coginchaug 110’3.0; 6. New Milford 105’7.0. 

Pole vault: 1. Danbury 35’0.0; 2. New Milford 33’6.0; 3. Staples 32’0.0; 4. Wilton 31’6.0; 5. Ridgefield 30’6.0; 6. Torrington 28’6.0. 

Discus: 1. Danbury 335.2.0; 2. Bethel 334’5.0; 3. Staples 333’6.0; 4. New Milford 329’6.0; 5. Hyde 307’6.0; 6. New Fairfield 306’11.0. 

Long jump: 1. Bloomfield 60’7.0; 2. Hyde 59:03.5; 3. Danbury 56’6.5; 4. Brookfield 53’11.0; 5. New Milford 53’9.0; 6. Coginchaug 52’4.0. 

Girls Results

Girls team results: 1. Danbury 62, 2. Nonnewaug 47, 3. Hillhouse 46, 4. Coginchaug 39.5, 5. Torrington 29, 6. Holy Cross 24, 7. Bunnell 19.5, 8. Wilton 16, 9. Cheshire 14, 10. Greenwich 11, 11. Naugatuck, St. Joseph 9, 13. Weston 8, 14. Brookfield, Darien 7, 16. Bloomfield 6.5, 17. Bethel, Hopkins 6, 19. New Fairfield 4, 20. Hyde Leadership School 1.5. 

4X1600: 1. Coginchaug 22:22.1; 2. Danbury 22:38.4; 3. Nonnewaug 23:21.0; 4. Wilton 23:45.7; 5. Torrington 24:17.5; 6. Naugatuck 24:59.9. 

4x800: 1. Coginchaug 10:15.1; 2. Torrington 10:23.4; 3. Brookfield 10:26.0; 4. Weston 10:28.5; 5. Naugatuck 10:31.3; 6. Holy Cross 10:38.2. 

4x400: 1. Danbury 4:08.5; 2. Wilton 4:16.8; 3. Cheshire 4;20.4; 4. New Fairfield 4:22.7; 5. Weston 4;23.9; 6. Bethel 4;25.0. 

4x200: 1. Hillhouse 1:49.6; 2. Nonnewaug 1:56.7; 3. Holy Cross 1:58.2; 4. Greenwich 1:58.3; 5. Weston 1;58.6; 6. Brookfield 1:59.8. 

4x100: 1. Hillhouse 51.0; 2. (tie) Greenwich, Nonnewaug 52.9; 4. Torrington 53.0; 5. Bloomfield 53.3; 6. Bethel 53.7. 

300-hurdles: 1. Hillhouse 2:32.5; 2. Holy Cross 2:36.1; 3. Nonnewaug 2:37.0; 4. Wilton 2:40.4; 5. Bunnell 2:41.0; 6. Naugatuck 2:41.6. 

Distance medley relay: 1. Coginchaug 13:14.1; 2. Nonnewaug 13:24.3; 3. Hopkins 13:25.5; 4. Danbury 13;37.8; 5. Naugatuck 14:00.0; 6. Holy Cross 14;22.9. 

Long jump: 1. Danbury 45’11.5; 2. Hillhouse 43’10.25; 3. Nonnewaug 43’00.0; 4. Bloomfield 42’6.0; 5. Cheshire 39’10.5; 6. Torrington 39’03.5. 

Shotput: 1. Danbury 94’6.0; 2. Hillhouse 90’03.0; 3. Bunnell 89’10.0; 4. Torrington 4; 5. Naugatuck 2; 6. (tie) Bloomfield, Hyde 77’06.0. 

Javelin: 1. Danbury 278’8.0; 2. Coginchaug 253’11.0; 3. Cheshire 251’4.0; 4. Bunnell 251’2.0; 5. St. Joseph 244’8.0; 6. Naugatuck 235’0.0. 

Discus: 1. Danbury 251’4.0; 2. Holy Cross 245’0.0; 3. Bunnell 233’10.0; 4. Bethel 227’4.0; 5. Nonnewaug 216’7.0; 6. Hyde 214’1.0. 

High jump: 1. Torrington 14’4.0; 2. (tie) St. Joseph, Darien 14’0.0; 4. Nonnewaug 13’6.0; 5. (tie) Bunnell, Coginchaug 13’2.0. 

Pole vault: 1. Brookfield 20’0.0; 2. (tie) Danbury, St. Joseph 19’6.0; 4. Bunnell 19’0.0; 5. Darien 18’0.0. 

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