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

The past two days, the Southern Connecticut Conference held their West and East Sectional championships to determine team titles as well as to qualify athletes for their SCC Championships on Tuesday May 27th at Amity Regional HS in Woodbridge.

SCC West Sectional 

North Haven HS, Monday, May 19

RESULTS

Sacred Heart Academy girls defended their title and defeated Hillhouse by a score of 153-112 and Daniel Hand, who won the Eastern Division last year, won the Western Division over Sheehan 157-112. 

Boys Highlights

Daniel Hand hit hard in certain events to pull out the win. Lucas Nolte (49.41) and Matthew Petersen (49.77) went 1-2 in the 400m and Emmett Merschman (6-02) and Braydon Shields (6-00) did the same in the high jump. Stone Leckey set his PR in the javelin at 172-09 and Sean Arms won the pole vault at 13-06. The 3200m saw the Tigers take four of the top eight spots and they took the win in the 4x400m (3:26.45) and runner up spots in the 4x100m and 4 x 800m. 

Fairfield Prep’s Jack Davis went from a decent mid 11-second 100m sprinter to becoming one of the best in the state. His winning times of 10.58 in the 100m and 21.64 in the 200m, while wind aided are the 3rd best times in the state this season. His time in the shorter event is the 12th fastest time in state history under all conditions. He also helped his team claim gold in the 4x100m with their time of 42.89. 

Taking another double victory was Sheehan’s Tyler Deme. The senior, who will attend Quinnipiac next year, easily won both the 1600m in 4:33.21 and 3200m in 9:52.36. 

Willam Gibson set two PRs in the hurdle races. The Hillhouse senior is now ranked top six in the state in both events. He won the 110m hurdles in 14.68 and the 300m hurdles in 38.75.

Lucas DeCrescenzo of Lyman Hall came away with a new PR in the shot put and another win in the discus. He improved his shot to 52-2 and threw 156-5 in the discus. 

Girls Highlights

Behind the efforts of Maya Quaranta and a strong distance team, Sacred Heart won another division title. Quaranta, the State Open champion in the shot this past winter, won her speciality with a distance of 38-3 and discus in 113-3. While they won the 4x800m, the distance events were responsible for 46 points in that area by scoring multiple people in the three longest individual events. Also earning her first significant win of her career, sophomore  Abigel Finta set a PR in the pole vault, clearing 10 feet. 

Branford senior Ella Stone contributed 30 points to her team’s total and swept the jumps. She cleared 4-10 in the high jump, 18-0.25 in the long jump and 36-5 in the triple. 

After an injury that took her out this indoor season, Anna Vlieks has returned and is a dominant force this spring. After finishing 7th last year in the 3200m at both the State Open and New Englands she claimed wins in both the 1600m (5:22.91) and 3200m (11:41.89).

SCC East Sectional

North Haven HS, Tuesday, May 20

RESULTS

In the second section this past Tuesday at North Haven HS, Hamden held off a strong Xavier team by a score of 185-139. The girls side was as tight as can be with Mercy scoring 140 points and Amity only a half point behind. 

Boys Highlights

Hamden had an incredibly well balanced attack, claiming seven gold medals and scoring in 17 of 18 events. New England 1000m champion Alex Medina pulled off a double victory winning the 1600m in 4:17.76 and 800m in 1:57.52. Junior Torsten Wallin is developing into quite a decathlete. He won the 110m hurdles in 15.35 and pole vault, clearing 14-0. He even set a PR in the javelin of 138-4 to take the silver medal in that event. Jabari Hypolite won the 100m in a PR of 11.02, took 4th in the 200m (23.33) and joined Isaiah Lefers, Richard Nartey and Tru Jones to win the 4x100m in 43.37. Nartley, Lefers, Vill-Andre Harris and Jones closed out the meet, claiming another gold medal in the 4x400m with a time of 3:25.66. Most of these boys are juniors so you just might see more of the same next year. 

Tyler Varveris of East Haven set two PRs and dominated the longer sprints. He won the 400m in 49.82 and 200m in 22.42. This moves him up to top five in both events in the Class MM rankings. 

Defending State Open long jump champion, Oliver Guzy of Xavier, won his speciality with a season best of 22-9 and his teammate Jack Ouellette, the 3200m Open champion also struck gold with a time of 9:25.30.

Girls Highlights

It’s been a decade since Mercy last won a SCC division title but they sent a message, long distance, that they are the top team in the Eastern Division. The Tigers faced a tough battle from Amity who scored more than expected with 28 points in the pole vault.

Like an anaconda snake, Mercy just squeezed the life out of the rest of the division in the distance events. The started the meet with a win in the 4x800 with a team of Heather Meisinger, Allison Pelletier, Alyson Low and Ruby Kuselias running a season best of 9:58.84. They now have the 5th best time in the state this season. 

They followed that up by finishing 1-2-5 in the 1600m. Sarah Roberts (5:07.02), Cora Wasiolek (5:07.21) and Calista Nephew (5:18.40) all set PRs to score 22 points. 

Roberts pulled out a double victory, winning the 800m in 2:23.48 with freshman Low taking 2nd in 2:24.95 and her classmate Wasiolek finishing a place behind in 2:26.20. Nephew (2:26.92) and Meisinger (2:30.93) took 4th and 6th to score 32 points in this single event. 

They added more to their total with Roberts winning the 3200m in 11:32.71, supported by Wasiolek (11:34.10) and Romero (11:59.48) finishing 2nd and 6th. 

It wasn’t all distance for Mercy. Kathleen Gaboury got a PR in the shot put with her throw of  33-3.0 to secure the win in the event. Coming down to the last event, a second place finish in the 4x400 relay would have secured a win and third would have left them on the outside. When they crossed the line in 4:09.06, the long drought was over and the Tigers were able to hoist the winning trophy. 

Liliana Quill led Amity with wins in the long jump, 17-1.25 and pole vault in clearing 11 feet. She faced one of her rivals for major post season awards, Kaylin Diglio of Guilford who was a little off her game and only cleared 10-6. After the pair came an onslaught of Spartan as Melinda Sauer finished 3rd (9-6), Amelia Cohen and Quin Cohen took 4th (7-6) and Gabriella Bonaldo finished 6th (6-6). 

While Mercy ruled the distance, Hamden made the most noise in the sprints. Junior Shanez De Roche claimed triple gold medals. Her winning times of 12.23 and 25.10 in the 200m are now ranked top 8 in CT with a chance to score at the State Open in both. She also joined her teammate Megan Stallworth, Siobhan Diggs and Chyle Bond to win the 4x100m in 48.94. This is at least the 2nd time this season the Dragons have gone under 49 seconds which makes them the 4th fastest team in CT this season. 

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.