By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp

MSR Photo Galleries from NBNI on Sunday

The New Balance Nationals Indoor meet is known as the “Fastest Party on the Planet” “Where Records are Broken” because high school runners from all over the globe descend upon The Track at New Balance in Boston. On Sunday Brooke Strauss, a senior from Glastonbury, became the fastest girl miler at the meet as she used a last lap surge to win by a few steps and lowered her previous Connecticut state record. Strauss finished in a time of 4:39.53 in defeating runners from Tennessee, California, Oregon, Texas and many other states to become a national champion for the first time. 

“Running the 4:44 at Millrose was a good start but I felt like there was more in the tank and I was looking forward to another chance.” said Strauss who has committed to attend UConn next fall. She felt she learned a great deal from a disappointing 1000m race at the Armory in January where she finished 9th. “I got caught behind and I kind of panicked. But the way this race played out, I was just dragged along a little bit, it was great. What I was telling myself going into this race was that I want it to be fast and I was a little more comfortable with that.” Her latest state record time places her at #3 in the nation this indoor track season.

View Brooke's interview with Marty Ogden 

Shuttle Hurdle Relay Championships

There has been plenty of heat in the hurdles this year with Bloomfield and Windsor boys battling it out all season long with the two teams putting up six of the top 15 times in the state this winter. Well their depth was apparent as Bloomfield set the CT state record to finish 8th at New Balance Nationals Indoor while Windsor took 26th place. The WarHawks team of Delante Senior, Shaun Lazenby, Sergio Rose Jr. and Jessie Singleton Jr. combined to finish in 31.03 to improve upon Woodstock Academy’s 15 year-old state record by .7 seconds. According to Singleton, they got the confidence to achieve their season long goal by “just believing in ourselves and knowing we could do it.”

The Bloomfield boys, with three of the top 15 hurdlers in state who all qualified for the State Open, this was almost expected. But for the Windsor girls, who had three girls who scored at the State Open and finished in the top 12 in New England, this was also a real possibility of breaking the state record going into the meet. Tomari Gillespie, who was third at the Open, Jordyn Williams (4th at the Open), Layla Harris (6th at the Open) and Trinity Laing (10th at Class L) fused their talents to finish in 34.77 and break Weaver’s 19 year-old record by .22 seconds to finish in 8th place. 

View the Windsor girls shuttle hurdle relay team interview with Marty Ogden

“We knew the work that we put in and that we were practicing all week so we were kind of expecting this,” said Williams. 

Windsor girls set the CT state record in the shuttle hurdle relay with their hurdle coach Lorenzo Milledge

Visit the only site for the latest Connecticut High School State Records for Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field at My Track and Field Records.

Boys 4x400m Relay Championship

Perfection can be chased, but never obtained. Lyman Hall has chased perfection this season and they nearly obtained it. They achieved so much this season, Class M champions, State Open champions, New England 4x400 champions, All American and a state record in the sprint medley relay. Coming into Sunday, the Trojans were looking to earn another All American honor and break the state record in the 4x400m but they came up just short. They finished 21st, just under five seconds off placing in the top 6 and were 19 hundredths of a second slower than Windsor’s state record that was set last year when the Warriors earned All American honors. But the Wallingford team’s time of 3:20.37 is still the 2nd fastest time in state history. 

The only member of the team that is returning next year is Aaron Rich and he pensively stated “we wanted to place in the 4x400m and probably won’t do that. We still ran a good time but…” It was that but, that hinted at their disappointment and yet still excitement of what one of the greatest quartets in state history has achieved. 

The team was made up of two sets of brothers. Aaron Rich led off with a 50.09 split while senior Timothy Conklin handed off in 50.94. Owen Rich maintained the lead in heat 12, running  50.94 while State Open 600m Timothy Conklin closed it out in 48.35 with the foursome leading the entire way in their heat. Sadly for CT track and field the Rich brothers will be heading off to the baseball diamond in the spring and Owen will be heading off to Binghamton University while the Conklins will stick around for the outdoor season before leaving for the University of New Haven in the fall. 

View the Lyman Hall boys 4x400m relay team interview with Marty Ogden

Three other CT school records were set a little farther back. Shelton, running as the Gaels Track Club finished in 34th in 3:22.45. The team of Sebastian Matei, Angel Inthapanhya, Eric Pacheco and Charles Pereira ran the 7th fastest school record in state history. 

View the Shelton boys 4x400m relay team interview with Marty Ogden

Daniel Hand’s team finished right behind Shelton in 36th place. The team of Lucas Nolte, Emmett Merschman, Aedan Virgulto and John Daniels ran 3:22.56 to become ranked #8 CT all time. 

Trumbull moved up to the 13th fastest team in state history with their school record. The State Open championship team of Ryan McCann, Justin Steele, Timothy Keane and Sebastian Perez finished in 3:23.74 with Perez running a 49.1 anchor split. 

View the Trumbull boys 4x400m relay team interview with Marty Ogden

Boys Mile Championship

Newtown’s Soheib Dissa had earned All American honors in the steeplechase last spring and in cross country in the fall. He was going for a third straight season but came up just short, finishing in 7th place with a time of 4:07.83. The senior, who will attend Duke next fall, was at the front of a tight pack in third place but lost four places in the final 100m with third place .39 seconds in front when he crossed the finish line. 

In the second fastest heat, Xaiver’s Jack Ouellette running for South Farms Track Club finished 15th overall in a new school record of 4:11.21. He broke JT Burke’s 36 year-old record that was set when he won the Millrose Games mile on the old Madison Garden 160m banked track. Burke, who once held several state records, finally had his name wiped from the Xavier record books after Owen Martin broke the record in the 1000m earlier in the season. The time by Ouellette moved him into the #9 spot in the CT all time top performance list. 

The two seniors had big goals going into the season. “Me and Owen had a goal to rewrite our record book and we did just that. 1000m, 1600, 3200m, 2 mile, 4 x 800m… it's just a great feeling.”

Click to view Jack Oullette's interview with Marty Ogden

Girls 4x400m Championship

Despite a season full of injuries, the Bloomfield girls still won their 15th  straight Class S title, won the State Open and still managed to run the 2nd fastest relay in state history behind their school record of 3:51.36. With splits of 57 to 59 seconds, the WarHawks combination of senior Kiylah Williams (59.45 split), plus returners Jahniya Barclay (57.98), Soleigh Dixon (58.28) and, D’Asia Duncan (57.88) finished 13th in 3:53.60. 

Team captain Williams, who missed a considerable chunk of the season, said “you have to fix the injury because you have to run right now. So honestly, you have to get your adrenaline pumping, tune it out and worry about your injury after and collapse after you finish.”

Click to view the Bloomfield girls 4x400m relay team interview with Marty Ogden

New Balance Nationals Indoor 

at The Track at New Balance, Boston, MA

RESULTS

More Sunday Results

Boys 4x55 M Shuttle Hurdle Championship

26th Windsor TC 32.54

Marvin Escalera, Javonni Reynolds, Haydn Spaulding, Tyrell Young

Boys 60m Championship Semi Final

20th Luke Richardson Bethel   6.91

Girls 1 Mile Championship

19th Gilbert, Chase 11 Old Lyme 4:49.55

59th Sherry, Liv 12 Conard TC 4:58.02

98th Sherry, Tess 12 Conard TC 5:03.34

Boys 1 Mile Championship

92nd Cushing, Luke 11 Spartans  - Amity 4:20.20

94th Owen Martin South Farms TC/ Xavier 4:20.27

106 Hojlo, Teddy 10 Greenwich- Brunswick  4:21.73

14th Lee, Nathan 11 Greenwich- Brunswick 4:11.03

Boys 4x400m Relay Championship

43rd  Windsor Track  3:24.07

  Shelldon Simpson II, Jaden Langford, Jaylen Wesley, Michael Huff  

72nd Hamden Dragons 3:26.56

  Richard Nartey, Alexander Medina, Tru Jones, Isaiah Lefers

75th Bloomfield TC  3:26.69

  Jahiem Lawrence, Jessie Singleton Jr. Sergio Rose Jr., Delante Senior

83rd Hall TC  3:28.61

  Benjamin Cohen, Caleb Rainey, Yohannes Dewander, Maximus Fite

Girls 4x400m Relay Championship

29th Windsor Track    3:59.77

1) Paige Wilson 10, 2) Grayson Harris 12, 3) Evelyn Schwartz 11 4) Ava Coleman 9

Girls Shot Put Championship

27th Quaranta, Maya 12 SHAsharks TC - Sacred Heart 37’5.25

29th Sirdine, Payton 11 Bloomfield TC  36’10.25

31st Smith, Lauren 12 New Canaan TC 36’07.0

Nike Indoor Nationals 

at The Armory Track & Field Center, New York City

RESULTS

More Sunday Results

Girls 800m Championship

42nd Karina Chan Norwich TC 2:22.86

Boys 800m Championship

30th Emmett Kristoff Rockville TC 1:57.15

37th Charles Dalles Middlefield- Coginchaug 1:58.08

Girls Emerging Elite 800m

21st Eliana Daplyn Greenwich TC 2:18.92

23rd Margaret McCooe Greenwich TC-CT 2:19.29

Boys Emerging Elite 800m

17th Evan Vitagliano Fitch TC 1:57.73

33rd Davin Duffy Bolton 1:59.78

34rd Ryan Newcomb Greenwich TC-CT 2:00.17

44 Landon Wall Brookfield  2:01.29

53rd Julieen Lopez Bristol Central TC-CT 2:03.99

Girls 4x400m Emerging Elite

9th Fleet Feet Racing- Staples 4:06.59

E. Ferraro, B. Dewitt, M. Stevens, T. Black

Boys 4x400m Championship 

17th Greenwich TC- C. Williams, J. Hannafin, D. Silver, W. Tulloch 3:24.13

Boys Emerging Elite Shot Put

17th Brandon Dunn Hotchkiss TC 50-02.00

18th James Oberg Guilford Grizzlies TC 49-05.50

29th Joshua Keaton East Hartford TC 45-10.50

Boys Emerging Elite Long Jump

20th Jayden Dougherty Lion Mode TC- Sheehan 20-06.25

Girls Emerging Elite Shot Put

9th Lourdes Lawson Suffield TC 37-03.75

25th Alisha Smith Windsor TC 33-05.25

30th Dylan Phelps Norwich TC 31-10.00

31st Faith Anderson Derby TC 31-05.75