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

RESULTS

There was a wind tunnel down the straightaway at Weston High School on Monday afternoon as talented sprinters  in the Southwest Conference produced incredibly fast times. Newtown girls and Bethel boys repeated as champions with the Nighthawks three peating with a score of 140 and Weston taking 2nd with 116 points. The Wildcats simply dominated scoring 196 points with Bunnell taking the runner up spot with 109 points. 

Girls Championship Highlights

Newtown was led by Aashni Shetty who was the double winner in the LJ (17-8), TJ (34-10) and grabbed silver medals in 100m hurdles (15.45) and 300m hurdles (47.73). After a long day of six jumps and three separate races over a little more than two hours, the senior was responsible for 36 team points. They also scored well in the relays with the 4x100m team of Summer-Rose Chaljub, Jessie Moore, Abigail Manka and Lola Kessler (50.89) and 4x800m squad Natalie delCampo, Leah Morris, Clare Csaszar and Ana Morris (10:04.10) also claiming gold. Their depth ultimately carried them through as they scored in 15 of the 18 events. 

Stratford frosh Kyra McLean sped to double victories in 100m at 12.09 and 200m in 24.76. Both times were the fastest ever run at SWCs but were not eligible for records due to higher than allowed tail wind. 

Phoebe Cora Smith of Joel Barlow earned two first places in winning the 100m hurdles in 14.71 and returned to win in the 300m hurdles in 45.58. Like McLean, Smith’s hurdle time would have been a meet record but had wind readings of +4.5, over the allowable +2.0 m/s. 

Katie McMorrow of New Fairfield ruled the distance events as she took home two gold medals. Using a 76 second last lap, she won the 1600m PR 5:10.87 and finished with a win in the 3200m in 11:39.56.

Weston’s Alexis Banks owned all three throwing events. She tossed the shot 33 -1.25, threw the javelin 116-4 and a won with a discus mark of 93-7.

Boys Championship Highlights

The sprinting events were on wind-aided fire with Bethel’s Luke Richardson and Bunnell’s Jayson Vanterpool running times rarely seen in Connecticut, much less a single conference meet. With a 4.9m/s tailwind, both boys went way under the meet record in the 100m with Vanterpool winning this round of the back and forth between these two great runners. The Bunnell senior won in 10.38, the 75th fastest time nationally. To put that time in geographic perspective, 36 of the times in front of him were from the single state of Texas. Richardson fought gamely and finished only .03 seconds behind. Round two went to Richardson as he broke the meet record in a wind legal time of 21.30. This makes him the 9th fastest 200m in state history. Vanterpool came up short this time in 21.51, which also crushed the meet record and ties him for #15 All Time in CT. 

Vanterpool also anchored Bunnell’s 4x100m with his teammates Diallo Cowan, Kaidyn Nalley and Alex Munoz to another meet record of 42.50, 3rd fastest in CT this season 

Including Richardson’s efforts, Bethel scored in 17 of the 18 events to pull ahead of the 14 other scoring teams in the conference. Senior Yee-Jun Ng joined his teammates Ryan Kovacik, Josh Heyel and Mateo Romero to cruise to victory in the 4x800m in a time of 8:30.34. He returned to set his PR in the 800m, winning in 1:55.19. This time moves the New England 600m runner-up into the CT 7th ranked 800m runner for 2025. He closed out his day joining Chris Troetti, Jackson Sorbello and Caiden D'Alessandro to claim his 3rd gold medal in the 4x400m with the team running 3:26.71. 

There was a great battle in the pole vault with Bethel’s Devin Tran pulling ahead of Bunnell’s Ryan Gonzalez after the Bethel senior cleared 14 feet on his 1st attempt after Gonzalez took it on his 2nd attempt. Tran moved into the top six jumpers in CT. 

Newtown boys had three boys who claimed multiple gold medals. All American steeplechaser Soheib Dissa won both the 1600m (4:20.43) and 3200m (9:44.78). Jayden Taylor claimed double gold in the hurdles as he won the 110m hurdles in a time of 15.11 and 300m hurdles, crossing the line in 42.30. Jumper Elias Brady not only won the long jump at 20’9.5, he also broke the Newtown school record at 44-10.0. All three boys are seniors so the Nighthawks will have to replace a lot of points in 2026. 

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.