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

Athletes are making their final push for the championship season and with the weather finally clearing on Saturday, many Connecticut athletes put up big marks that made a huge imprint on the state, New England and national rankings. Since this is Mother’s Day weekend, MySportsResults would like to give a big shoutout to all the moms out there that support CT’s track and field athletes in so many ways. Athletes get the medals and coaches get the credit for developing the athletes, but everyone knows the importance of moms. As one famous coach, Laddie Lawrence once said, “coaches can only polish the apple, it is parents who grow the tree.” Happy Mother’s Day. 

57th Glenn Loucks Games

RESULTS

Photos by John Nepolitan

We are going to start off highlighting the throwers at the 57th Glenn Loucks Games in White Plains, NY. They are often relegated to the far corners of the stadium, but CT athletes put up some big performances against a national class field and the award for Field Event MVP of the Meet went to Simsbury’s Marshall Potter. He had a tremendous two days coming away with victories in both the discus and shot put. The New Balance Nationals All American this indoor season set two PRs with throws of 60-6.0 in the shot put and 185-0 in the discus. His shot put toss may be #11 All Time in CT history, but he will have to set up bigger as both Chris Amy and Thomas Matlock have thrown farther than this this year, which should make it worth your while to step outside the stadium to watch the State Open Shot Put. But in the discus, the Trojan has been setting PR after PR nearly every week, but he unleashed a huge 13 foot lifetime best of 185-0 to pull out the win. That makes him 6th best discus thrower in CT history,  the 5th best in meet history and takes over the New England lead for 2025.

Photo courtesy of John Nepolitan

New Canaan’s Lauren Smith also had a stellar weekend as she came away with a win in the javelin with a PR of 124-2 to move up to #6 in the New England rankings. But probably just as important she defeated CT’s top ranked javelin thrower Alexis Banks of Weston. At a dual meet this week, Banks threw 136 feet and she had to settle for 3rd on Saturday with a throw of 119-6. It was still her 2nd best throw of the season and 3rd lifetime. 

Smith also had a solid day in the shot put taking 3rd in 37-0 and a PR of 126-3 in the discus, good enough for 6th. She is a serious triple threat for the Rams and could significantly add to their point totals as the championship season arrives. 

Finishing one place ahead of Smith in the discus was Bloomfield’s Payton Sirdine. The junior took over the state lead with her throw of 130-9 and moves up to #2 in New England. 

Defending State Open champion in the javelin, Thomas Bannon of Rockville, already had the state lead with a 203-0 distance in a dual meet last week. But on his 6th throw he went over 200 feet by 4 inches to break that barrier for the 2nd time on the season and only missed the meet record by three feet. No other thrower in New England has gone over 200ft yet this year.

Connecticut athletes ran some strong relays as well. Mercy took over the state lead in the DMR with their 4th place finish in a time of 12:19.12. Freshman Cora Wasiolek opened up with a 3:46.34 1200m leg, Calista Nephew ran a 1:03.74 400m split and Beatrice Perrault finished her 800m leg in 2:24.95. Sarah Roberts closed out the race with 5:04.10 1600m to help the team qualify for New Balance National Outdoors.

In the boys 4x800m, Ridgefield boys team of Aidan Nelson (1:59.05), Magnus Manley (1:57.28),Trevor Fuller (1:57.62) and Charles Lovett (1:52.01) just barely missed Liverpool, NY’s meet record by a second and winning in a time of 7:45.94 which is the New England lead and the 25th best time nationally. 

Photo courtesy of John Nepolitan

New Canaan boys broke their 14 year-old school record by less than two tenths of a second. The team of Ryan Boulanger (1:59.57), Ryan Monohan (2:00.21) Quinn Kilkenny (1:57.04) and Spencer Paine (1:58.04) finished 3rd in a time of 7:54.85 which is currently #2 in New England behind Ridgefield.

The Ridgefield girls were also in on the fun, taking home medals with their 5th place finish in the 4x800m. The team of Isla Dougan, Madelyn Craw, Erin Klosowski and Ella Margolus took over the state lead with their time of 9:44.40.

The mixed 4x400m is gaining more popularity as it is now an Olympic event. While there isn’t much history to the co-ed relay, Nauguatuck’s team of Cynthia Singleton, Ryan Deitelbaum, Lauren Kropo and Jaiden Roach finished a close 2nd with a time of 3:35.81. It certainly helped that Kropo split a 55.04 and Roach finished it off in 49.32.

Windsor girls, the defending State Open champions in the 4x100m look to be contenders for another title. The Warrior's team of Jaida Murray, Paige Wilson, Grayson Harris and Tomati Gillespie teamed up to take 2nd in 48.71.

In the Open 800m Hamden’s Alex Medina, the New England 1000m champion, tied Dylan Bathrick for the state lead in the 800m, finishing 3rd in 1:54.73. 

The girls 800m was highly competitive as Chase Gilbert just missed out on a medal with a 7th place finish. But she still came away with a Lyme Old Lyme school record of 2:11.38 which is the 2nd fastest in the state this year and #16 all time.

There is getting to be a real battle among the state’s fastest freshman distance girls. Greenwich’s Sophie Passalacqua and Glastonbury’s Lauren Parrett are never far from each other with their times. On Friday, Passalacqua made the short trip from her home to White Plains and ran 10:58.45 to have the third best time in the state behind seniors Brooke Strauss and Liv Sherry. But the next day, Parrett also stayed close to home to run the Great Hartford Invitational where she ran 10:52.10 to take over the 3rd spot in the rankings. The pair of 9th graders will sure to keep fans engaged as they progress over the next three years. 

After Sarah Roberts’ DMR leg on Friday, she came back the next day to break 5 minutes in the mile for the first time. The Mercy junior finished 10th in 4:58.02 to crack the top 20 mile times in CT history. Interestingly, there are four girls in front of her currently running high school track. 

Defending New England 3200m champion Jack Ouellette of Xavier ran a strong mile, taking 3rd in 4:16.78. He finished a place in front of East Lyme’s Sam Leone who won the New England mile this winter and clocked a 4:17.41.

The 3000m steeplechase requires strength, speed and overall athleticism. With four heavy barriers and a water jump, the event is always a fan favorite. Hale Ray’s Matthew Kraszewski has become a bit of a specialist in the event, having already run four 2k or 3k steeples this season. He matched up once again with Oxford junior Joe DeLuise whom he defeated at the O’Grady relays where Deluise fell over the last barrier. Once again the pair were close with Kraszewski taking 3rd in 9:42.10 and DeLuise taking one spot behind in 9:45.54.

Onto the sprints. The 400IH is a sprinter's version of the steeplechase. CT still runs the more common 300m hurdles, but NY and MA are two regional states that run the Olympic distance. Bloomfield’s D'Asia Duncan was the New England champion in the 300m hurdles last year and based on her strong 600m and 800m times is more suited to the longer hurdle race. Despite feeling under the weather, she finished 3rd on Saturday in a time of 1:02.03. While it was off her best time from the World School Sport Games she ran in Bahrain in October, it was her best season open from the girl who transferred from Florida where they run the event. She also helped her teammates to a 2nd place finish with a 56.62 anchor leg in the 4x400m. The WarHawks improved upon their state leading time, running a 3:57.69. 

Another junior who has taken a liking to the 400m hurdles is Charles Dalles of Coginchaug. He took the silver medal in 54.59 which is #8 CT All Time and about a half second better than his time last year at Nike Outdoor Nationals. 

The 100m is tough to compare to other performances because most meets don't have a wind reading and when they do, Mother Nature can provide a big tail wind which makes some outstanding performances ineligible for records. But to the average fan, fast is fast and Luke Richardson is FAST! With a big tail wind of 5.5 (nothing over 2.0 is allowed for records), he blazed to his PR of 10.53 in the prelims, which is tied as the 5th fastest time in CT history under all conditions. He returned to take 2nd in the finals with a time of 10.66. The Wildcat returned from the night before where he ran 22.03 to claim the win in the 200m. 

Also in the 100m was Fairfield Prep’s Jack Davis who finished 3rd in 10.82 after running a 10.80 in the prelims with a 3.0 wind aided time which moves him up to 4th fastest in the state this season.

Stay tuned for more weekend highlights from the 93rd Greater Hartford Invite, the Old Saybrook Runnin Ram Invite and the 9th Froshmore Invite.

Foss Running Camp

Will take place August 14-19, 2025 at Camp Wah Nee in Torrington, CT

Visit their website at fossrunningcamp.com for more information and to apply for 2025.