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

RESULTS

Last year it was Ridgefield boys and girls who swept the FCIAC titles but this year the honor went to Greenwich. The Cardinal’s boys team defeated Danbury by a score of 140-127 for their 3rd title in four years and the girls team won their first outdoor championship since 1984 by holding off Ridgefield 125-102.

Boys Championship Highlights

With weather varying between extremes of cold, windy and rainy one minute and sunny and mild the next, performances were greatly impacted. But these tough conditions brought out the best in the athletes. Greenwich boys won all three relays, taking the 4x800m in 8:17.42, 4x100m in 42.96 and finished off the meet winning the 4x400m in 3:28.13. Cameron Williams came across the line in 49.31 in the 400m, the 2nd best time in Class LL and David Akinnubi pulled out a 5th win for the Cardinals in the HJ. and added significant points in the triple jump and 5th place in the long jump. But the real secret behind the Cardinals was their depth, scoring in 14 of the 18 events and having multiple scorers in seven of them. 

Defending 100m champion Machai Henry of Danbury has had minor injuries which has limited his racing, but when his team needed him the most, he stepped to grab the win in a new FCIAC meet record of 10.64. This is the 4th best time in CT this season and the best legal wind legal time in the state. He also returned to take 3rd in the 200m ( 22.37) to give his team added points. 

Fellow Hatter Rysaiah Saunders also had a strong day winning the 110m hurdles in 14.55, the CT #2 time this year and came away with runner-up finishes in the 300IH (39.87) and 4x100m (43.64). Tobeas Kelly had a mild upset winning the long jump in a PR of 22-1.25 and also claimed a runner-up finish in the 200m and short relay. Last year Daniel Nalbatian was barely breaking 40 feet in the shot put, now a year later he is on the cusp of breaking 50 feet. The senior won the event with a distance of 49-8.25 and went over 49 feet for the 2nd week in a row. He also took home a bronze medal in the discus. 

New England cross country champions and nationally ranked Ridgefield boys simply dominated the distance events. In each race, they were content to sit in the pack but use their incredible finishing speed to grab a total of 76 points in the four longest events. The Tigers grabbed three points in the 4x800m by taking 6th place but in the 1600m they swept the top four places with all of them starting in the back of the pack and using their strength to run negative splits. Charles Lovett used a 61-second last lap to win in a time of 4:20.67, followed by Magnus Manley (4:21.97), Trevor Fuller (4:22.32) and junior Aidan Nelson (4:22.65). Lovett and Nelson used the same strategy to finish 1st and 4th in 1:55.79 and 1:56.88 in the 800m. 

After a deluge during the girls 3200m, the boys were all cold and wet but the Ridgefield quartet of Manley (9:36.77), Fuller (9:38.79), Alexander Glenn (9:39.15) and Sullivan Dunn (9:39.25) pulled off another sweep. After a very pedestrian first mile over 5 minutes, the Tigers all ran in the low 4:30s for the last half of the race. 

Girls Championship Highlights

Greenwich girls had a well-balanced attack scoring in 15 of 18 events and came away with five wins to claim the title decades in the making. They won the two longest relays in season best times that have certainly made an impact on the state rankings. Greenwich’s 4x800m started off the day running a time of 9:37.08, the 2nd best time in this year. The Cardinals put an exclamation mark on their victory by extending their lead throughout all four legs of the 4x400m, winning in a time of 4:02.06, the 3rd fastest in CT for 2025. 

In between those two big wins, senior Sophia Riche put up PRs in both the prelims and finals of the 100m hurdles to win in a time of 14.82, which is the 5th fastest time in the state this year. She returned to set another PR of 46.42 in the 300m hurdles and also took 2nd in the triple jump to provide 26 points to her team’s total. Eliana Daplyn was part of the winning 4x400m and 5th place 4x100m, but was able to claim individual gold in the 400m with a PR of 57.95, which is a new CT #10. Freshman Sophie Passalacqua earned her first individual gold medal of her career. She ran a strong second half to hold off all challengers to win the 1600m in a time of 5:07.38 and cracked the top ten times in CT in the process. She led most of the 3200m, but was stalked by Staples’ Sarah Bogdan who also claimed her first major victory, running a PR of 11:01.59 with Passalacqua taking 2nd only 3 seconds back. 

Trumbull’s McKenzyi Bell swept both short sprint events. She won the 100m in 12.27, a top 10 time in CT and 200m in 25.81. She nearly completed a trifecta but was denied when her Golden Eagles team came up short to Ridefield in the 4x100m. 

The throwing triple crown went to Lauren Smith who qualified for the State Open in all three events last year and won the javelin. She set her season best of 38-8.5 to take the shot put title, threw 115-5 to win the discus and used a 120-6 toss to claim the javelin title, all by significant margins. 

Where New Canaan hit, they hit hard. Besides Smith, Milana Hutchins was also a double winner, claiming both horizontal jumping titles. She took the long jump with a distance of 17-0.5 and triple jump, measuring 35-3.25. The sophomore also earned a 6th place medal in the 100m hurdles. 

 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.