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When a meet like the New England Championships features state records are broken left and right other notable performances are overlooked. MySportsResults has always recognized outstanding track and field athletes and this regional competition brings together many of the best athletes in the Northeast in the biggest meet for many of these athletes. Connecticut girls took home eight first place plaques while the boys earned six victories in the 13 events. In Addition to the events covered previously, the following winners and significant performances came from the Nutmeg State. 

Girls 55m Hurdles

One thing that stands out after reading Leonaya Knox stats on Athletic.net is that she has competed in 23 55m hurdles trials and final races and she has won 21 of those races. The Hillhouse senior added two more to defend her title on Saturday. While her winning time was .09 seconds off her PR of 7.99 from the Class M championships, she has gone under 8.10 in each championship race. Next up will be nationals where she is ranked 13th in the nation and will try to earn All American honors at Nike Indoor Nationals. Joining Knox on the podium were Cheshire’s Squirrel Lanz (5th-8.40) and Windsor’s Kareema McKenzie (6th-8.40).

Girls 600m

Gabby Hernandez came into the season with Precious Holmes’ state record of 1:30.79 in her sights after running just under a second within that time last year. Her season didn’t quite go as planned and she struggled to get close to her PR all season. On Saturday, the E,O. Smith senior, who will attend the University of Alabama next year, showed a glimpse of her old self, going right to the front and defending her New England title, running a season best of 1:32.31.

Hanging on for 2nd place in the 600m was State Open champion Esme Daplyn of Greenwich who ran her lifetime best of 1:33.99. The performance moves her up to become the 8th fastest girl in CT history and is ranked 12th nationally. Her time just barely missed the Greenwich school record held by multiple time All American Emily Philippides by .67 seconds.

Girls 1000m

Less than two hours after her anchor leg on the CT and New England meet record 4x800m, Brooke Strauss ran with the confidence of an athlete who knew she was going to win a second event. Even though she went out very hard in her 800m leg and obviously put some lactic acid in her legs, she returned and just sat in the pack of the field of 13 in heat two. She just lurked in the field waiting until the last lap and when she struck at the bell, the Glastonbury junior quickly built up a sizable lead to defeat her CCC rival Liv Sherry of Conard (2:56.61) by about two seconds, running a time of 2:54.52. Maloney’s Bria Benigni earned All New England for the second time in the 1000m taking 6th in a time of 2:57.66 after placing 7th last year and 5th as a sophomore. 

Girls 1-Mile

Just like Strauss, Katherine Bohlke ran like a person who knew she was going to win. The athlete, who has been a veteran of high stakes races, won the indoor and outdoor New England championships last year in the mile/1600m distances and even earned All American honors with her 4th place finish in the 2k steeple at NBNO. The Newington senior, who has committed to Virginia Tech, ran in the pack and pulled away from the field at the bell and defeated runner-up Tess Sherry of Conard (4:57.20) by almost five seconds crossing the line in 4:52.96.The big match up that has been building all season long between Bohlke and Strauss will take place in the mile at NBNI where the pair, who have both already run a 4:45 mile this winter, will shoot for Ceci Hopp’s 43-year-old CT record of 4:45.09.

Boys Shot Put

Junior Thomas Matlock of East Lyme entered the competition as the favorite and he didn’t disappoint the dozens of spectators jammed into the small corner of the Reggie Lewis Center. Matlock took the lead on his final toss of the prelims in flight 3 with a mark of 62-00, just a foot shy of his personal best. Lurking in 3rd place during the prelims was Chris Amy of Norwich Free Academy. It only took his first toss of the final for Amy to set his PR of 60-2.75 and earn the silver medal. Matlock is currently ranked US#6 while Amy moved up to US#20. Simsbury’s Marshall Potter took another All New England honor with his 5th place mark of 56-4.75, a PR by almost 2-feet.

Girls Shot Put

Since Hall’s Anna Siciliano pushed out over 40-feet to win at the Yale HS Classic in early January she has not lost a competition. With her best toss of 42-0.5 at the CCC Championships she entered as the favorite against Elena Chaplin of Ludlow MA and Shalisha Roberston of Hillhouse. The Yale-bound Siciliano set the tone of the competition with her first toss of 41-8.25 in the third flight. Chaplin countered with a first mark of 40-7.75 while Roberston’s first mark was 39-10.5. After all three progressed to the final round, the standings didn’t change until the final throws of the evening. Then things got heated as Robertson flew her final attempt a PR of 42-2.5 to take the lead. While Chaplin didn’t better her first mark, Siciliano entered the ring knowing that she had to push past her best to continue her regional winning streak. With the conviction that she didn’t come to settle for second place, Siciliano uncorked a huge PR of 43-9.5 for the New England title and a US#20.

Boys Long Jump 

As the sixth seed, Micah Blair of Amity overcame all competitors as he soared to a PR of 22-11 to win his first New England title on his next to last attempt. Of his six attempts (prelims and finals), Blair leaped over 22-feet the last 4 attempts while his competitors struggled to find legal jumps. State Open champion Oliver Guzy of Xavier managed only one legal attempt of his six for a fifth place mark of 21:10.25 while the CT #1 jumper Makye Warde of Capital Prep had an off day in only reaching 21-10 to finish in 6th, well below his season best of 23-4 at the CIAC S Championship.

Girls High Jump

The high jump competition areas on the infield at the Reggie Lewis Center are opposite each other with mats back to back so that boys and girls see each other competing. With the boys competition heating up between CT’s Antoine and Muhammad, Conard’s Lizzy Bidwell started by clearing a height of 5-1 and kept progressing until finally clearing 5-9 on a first attempt for the win as runner-up Zoe Santos of Norton MA failed on all 3 attempts at the same height. 

Connecticut showed off a great deal of depth in the relays.Besides their wins in the 4x800m relays and boys 4x400m, several other teams took home several medals and moved up on the all time list of CT relays. 

Girls 4x200m

It seems like Bloomfield is always among the elite 4x200m relays in the region. The War Hawks defended their title with the team of Jahniya Barclay, Saphyr Brown, Sianna Lloyd and Nacquelia Fletcher who finished in a time of 1:41.85 which is only .3 seconds off their season best set in January at the Armory Officials Hall of Fame Invitational. With a little bit of luck at Nationals, they could put a real scare into their school or state record which is less than a second away. They were followed by season best times from Windsor (2nd-1:42.02), East Hartford (3rd-1:44.60) and Naugatuck (5th-145.72).

Boys 4x200m

One team that did earn their school record in the 4x200m was Lyman Hall’s boy’s team consisting of Aaron Rich, Michael Fisher, Owen Rich and Timothy Conklin. They finished 2nd in the 7th of 9 heats but that held up for 5th overall. They took down a 19-year-old school record by .28 running a time of 1:31.39 and moved up to #13 in state history. The same foursome came back to win New England championship plaques in the 4x400m at the end of the meet as well, becoming the 5th fastest school record in the state. 

Girls 4x800m

With the eyes of many of the spectators on Glastonbury breaking the state and New England meet record, Hall's girl’s team also had a race for the history books. Earlier this season the team of Lauren Moskal, Abigail Sanderson, Julia Zydanowicz and Rylan Priest broke their four-year-old school record at the Yale Invitational and easily came away with the win at the State Open. But at New Englands they dug a little deeper and dropped three seconds off their time from Yale, running 9:18.50, the 5th fastest all time in the state to take 3rd place behind Greenwich who improved their team and dropped 33 seconds off their State Open performance to finish in 9:14.09, only four seconds off their school record time that was once a state record. 

Boys 4x800m

Just like the Titan girls, the Hall boys were leading early in the race and then continued to keep Ridgefield close the entire way. Gabriel Sisk, Connor Mayr, Isaac Mahler and Jon York broke their school record from the 2018 New England Championship team. The Titans finished 4th in a time of 7:54.44 moving up ahead of Danbury to claim the 5th fastest school record in the state. 

Girls 4x400m

The meet ending relay was highlighted by two more school records from CT teams. The E.O. Smith's All New England team finished 2nd in 3:58.14 with the team of Gabby Herndandez, Natalia Anagnostou, Emerson Whalen and Madeline Doran. They broke their school record from last year to move up into the #9 fastest school record in CT and 26th fastest time in the nation. After breaking their school record at the State Open, the same Hall team that ran to a school record in the 4x800m returned to finish 4th in 4:01.16, another school record and a current CT #2 this season.

Girls 2 Mile

In only her second season of running track and her first indoors, Ridgefield’s Ava Malagisi has established herself as one of the elite in the region having already taken 2nd in the 3200m at Class LLs and the State Open in times that are among the top 50 nationally. On Saturday, in her first New Englands as an individual she led for well past the mile mark until eventual champion Teanne Ewings of Houlton, ME took over just before the 1200m mark. Ewings was the New England runner-up in cross country and had a 10:28 season best before the race. She eventually won in 10:40.09 and Malagisi was passed by Rhode Island champion Erin vonHousen (10:45.43) and defending NE champion Hannah Andrejczyk (10:45.49) but held on for 4th place in 10:48.90, the 14th fastest time in state history. Juliette Forstrom of Sacred Heart Academy added her 10:52.20 effort for sixth place.

Boys 2 Mile

State Open champion Colby Bornstein of Tolland and Bethel’s Evan Bureau kept pace for much of the race until winner Matthew Giardina of Bishop Guertin NH broke it open to win in his PR of 9:12.49. Bornstein and Bureau battled it out for the next two podium spots with Bornstein finishing in his PR of 9:19.09 and Bureau in his personal best of 9:19.29. Sophomore Luke Cushing of Amity kicked over the final lap to take his podium place in fourth in his PR of 9:25.39.

Boys 1000m

Last year Newtown’s Soheib Dissa was the iron man of the CT track and field world, putting in hard doubles and triples over many weeks in a row running nationally ranked times in events from the 800m to the steeplechase where he earned All American. Now a junior, the Nighthawk has been more selective with his racing, only running the 1000m at the Class, Open and New England championship season. He still has run national class times and won most of his races with the exception of the prestigious Millrose Games where he finished 7th in a PR of 4:13.26. On Saturday, he once again was able to cross the line first in the fastest heat, but unfortunately Jacob Redman of Bedford, New Hampshire and Andrew Thornton-Sherman of St. Johnsbury, VT didn’t need to run fast in their qualifying races and were placed in the first of three heats and raced each other to their respective state records of 2:27.20 and 2:27.51. Dissa out leaned Coe-Brown Academy’s Jamie Lano by .07 seconds. His time of 2:28.93 not only breaks former New England champion Steven Tyler’s SWC record, it makes him the 16th fastest 1000m runner in state history. 

More All New England honors with a top six place finish included:

Girls 55m Dash Final: Junior Erica Austin of Kennedy placed 5th in her PR of 7.14.

Boys 55m Dash Final: Bethel’s Luke Richardson sped to his PR of 6.45 to earn 2nd place and a CT #2 this season.

Boys 55m Hurdle Final: Lyman Hall’s Owen Rich placed sixth in 7.73.

Boys 1 Mile: Staples Ben Lorenz finished 3rd in his PR of 4:16.77 followed by Suffield’s Griffin Mandirola in his personal best 4:20.66 for 5th with Xavier’s Jack Ouellette in 6th at 4:21.14.

Boys 600m: Race featured a 3-4-5 CT finish by Thomas Conklin of Lyman Hall (PR 1:21.74), Jack Mattingly of EO Smith (PR 1:21.88) and Weston’s Cameron Miles (PR 1:22.26)

Girls Long Jump: Saphyr Brown of Bloomfield leaped 17-8 to earn fourth place.

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