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

RESULTS

A night of speed it certainly was. With all these specialized meets for distance runners, throwers and event pole vaulters, it's about time one was developed for sprinters. Coginchaug Regional HS held the appropriately entitled Night of Speed Invitational on Friday night which saw one state record and 7 CT all time top 10 performances!!!

The Swedish 1000m SMR is a seldom run event in which athletes run legs of 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m. Bloomfield’s team of Saphyr Brown, Nikki Fletcher, Jahniya Barclay and D'Asia Duncan took down Windsor’s 10 year-old state record by a second running 2:13.93. Duncan split 56 seconds to help her team’s efforts. 

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Duncan had less than an hour to recover from her own near record race in the grueling 400m hurdles. She cruised to a win in the event in her new lifetime best of 1:00.35 which is not only US #13, it is the 2nd fastest time in state history. The time of 59.62 must be written all over her notebooks by now because that is the state record set by Leslie Nixon 41-years ago at the Junior Olympic National meet. Because she is also an All American heptathlete, the WarHawk also took six long jumps on obviously tired legs with a best of 17-8. 

The first event of the evening set the tone for the rest of the meet when Cromwell and Hillhouse battled to the wire in the 1600m sprint medley relay with the Panthers defeating the Academics. One of Cromwell’s 200m legs, hobbled by a hamstring injury only was able to muster about a 25 second leg with Hillhouse’s first two legs popping out a low 21 and a high 22 split. But Nassyr Andrade brought his team close with a 47.9 leg. Hillhouse anchor Mahkai Heyward ran the race of his life, splitting a 1:54 800m but he was not a match for Class S 1000m record holder Dylan Bathrick who ran an incredible 1:51.9. Cromwell ran the 13th best time nationally, finishing in 3:26.80 with Hillhouse not far behind in 3:27.90. Hall’s national champion time of 3:26.26 from 2019 is the only team in state history that has run faster and Hillhouse has the 8th fastest school record in state history. No other school has run faster outside of one of the national championship meets. 

The 400m hurdles seems to be one of the big events this spring. On his home track Charles Dalles popped off a big PR of 53.26 which is the 19th fastest time nationally and the #2 all time in CT history. The Coginchaug junior has a year to break Aaron Hayes’ 31-year old state record of 51.42. Finishing 2nd was Naugatuck’s Eliezer Pena who ran 54.51, the #6 time in state history. 

Sam LaMalfa of Portland has been a Class S powerhouse the past few years winning 3 state titles along with several runner-up finishes. He pulled off an amazing double which began with a CT # 1 time for 2025 in the 400m, winning in 47.22. This puts him with some of the best sprinters in state history and moves him up to #5 all time. He came back to run 1:56.13, which is the 6th best time in CT for 2025. 

All New England hurdler Delante Senior won his speciality, the 110m hurdles and tied his PR with his time of 14.14. This gives the Bloomfield senior four races this year under 14.30 and makes him CT #2 this season. 

The Lyme Old Lyme record board has been dominated by two names. Chase Gilbert has her name all over the distance events and Zoe Eastman-Grossel must have most of the sprinting ones. The senior who has committed to run for the Navy Academy next year broke her own school record in the 400m, winning in 56.95. She also anchored her 4x400m team to the 6th fastest time in CT this season. The Wildcat has the 2nd fastest time in CT and will possibly face Naugatuck’s Lauren Kropo at the State Open. If she decides to run the 300m hurdles, she has Bloomfield’s D’Asia Duncan to overcome. Either way, the girls long sprints should be a site to see in a few weeks from now. 

The boys 4x400m is heating up this season. Daniel Hand has already gone under 3:20 this season and now Coginchaug and Hall are threatening that barrier. The Blue Devils team of James Parmelee, Skyler Kaczor, Liam Ullman and Charles Dalles ran the state's 3rd fastest time of 3:22.03 and were pushed by Hall who finished a step behind in 3:22.78, moving up to #4 in the CT rankings this season. 

Coginchaug certainly showed off in front of their home crowd. Aaliyah Watson, Estella Perez, Jane Waterman and Sophie Farr combined to run 4:03.83, the #3 best time in the state for 2025. 

Bloomfield continues to show off its depth in the long jump with 6 girls over 17 feet on Friday which now gives them the top 6 seeds in Class M. Vanessa Agyemang won with a distance of 18-9.25 which is her 3rd time over 18 feet this season with a state best of 19-2. In 2nd place was Saphyr Brown as her 18-8 leap tied her best jump since Nationals last year. Her only better jump in her life was her State Open winning jump from indoors in 2024.

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