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

RESULTS

MEET RECORDS

Photos - Track & Field Events by Ron Knapp

Photos - Field Events by Craig Rosenberg

Photos from CIAC

Despite losing several members of their senior class to disciplinary issues, Bloomfield girls still held it together to dominate the CIAC Girls State Open Championship on Saturday at Willowbrook Park in New Britain. They scored 88 points with Glastonbury grabbing the runner-up spot with 60 points and Windsor taking third with 46. 

Photo courtesy of CIAC

Coach Anne Burrow, who has guided the WarHawks to seven State Open titles since 2012 was thrilled how her team came together in face of several setbacks the past week. “I think this is my favorite one yet,’ Burrows exclaimed. “These kids could have crumbled. They could have said the season is over and went about their business but they got focused and I found all brand new types of leadership on my team.”

“I usually look to my seniors, but DD (D’Asia Duncan), SoSo (Soleigh Dixon), Payton (Sirdine) and Taylor (Jackson) let their voices be heard.”

D’Asia Duncan and Vanessa Agyemang went 1-2 in both hurdles events with Duncan running a PR of 14.00, the second fastest time in state history in the 100m hurdles and a winning time of 42.38 in the 300m hurdles. Agyemang also picked up a third silver medal in the long jump.

Jackson was a bit of a surprise in the long jump. She came in as the 4th seed and set a PR of 18-05.5 to claim the title and in the high jump, she set a two inch PR to move into 3rd. 

“Taylor said she was going to show up today and she did. The entire team was going to do what they needed to do to win. ” Burrows said.after the meet. 

Payton Sirdine also contributed major points to the team with her third place finish in the shot put (38-03.5) and runner-up throw in the discus (123-11). 

Saphyr Brown also qualified for New Englands in both the 100m (6th place) and 200m (5th place) and April Nathaniel provided more points in the long jump with a 4th place finish. The 4x400m barely missed New Englands but still added two points after the team victory was well in hand with a 7th place finish. 

Meet Records

The sole meet record on the girls side was set in the 1600m with both Brooke Strauss of Glastonbury and Chase Gilbert of Lyme Old Lyme both going under Katie Bohlke’s record of 4:46.46 set last year. The race started off with Strauss, Gilbert and Liv Sherry setting a blistering pace and then at the bell Strauss put it into overdrive and finished with a 65 second last lap to crush the record, running a time of 4:40.62 with Gilbert also going under the record with a time of 4:46.46. Sherry hung on for third in a PR time of 4:39.39 and became the 13th fastest 1600m runner in state history. Strauss moves up to US #12 and Gilbert is now ranked #47 nationally. A little farther back freshman Lauren Parrett of Glastonbury (4:55.89) and junior Alexandra Morgan (4:58.93) of Fairfield Warde broke five minutes for the first time and another freshman, Cora Wasiolek of Mercy ran a PR of 5:04.56 in the first heat to round out the top six one of the most incredibly deep fields seen in Open history.

Highlights

Strauss had to go to the well in the 800m as Mercy’s Sarah Roberts, in her only event of the day, set a hard early pace going through the 200m in 31 high and the 400 in 1:04 low. That forced Strauss to go after her on the back straight away and pulled even with 100m to go. On the homestretch, the pair went stride for stride with Strauss only pulling a head inside the relay exchange zone barely crossing the line first for her second win of the day in a time of 2:09.47 with Roberts .11 seconds back to move up to # 7 on the CT all time list. 

Gilbert returned for the 3200m where she faced freshman Parrett once again. This time Parrett set the pace with Gilbert running in her slip stream most of the race with Hand’s Anna Vleks and Sarah Bogdan of Staples occasionally in the front. Using her superior finishing speed, the Lyme Old Lyme junior took the title she last won as a freshman, finishing in a time of 10:48.36 with Parrett taking 2nd in 10:53.43 and Vlieks moving up from 7th last year and setting a new PR of 10:58.99. Bogdan settled for 4th in 11:07.29. 

Lauren Kropo was trying to sweep the sprinting events but faced stiff challenges in all three. She started off dominating the 100m, defending her title in a time of 11.97 with Zoe Eastman-Grossel of Lyme-Old Lyme (12.10) and Manchester’s Samiya Eady (12.13) taking 2nd and third places. 

Then with only a 9 minute break she faced another stellar field and ran within a few tenth of a second of her lifetime best, but with an blazing last 100m Windsor’s Paige Wilson ran an incredible 55.02 to take over the fastest time in the state and move up to # 6 all time in CT. Kropo settled for 2nd in 55.78 and Tamia Chapman Plainville ran 56.35, the 3rd best time in the state this season. 

Finally after about an hour rest Kropo faced Eady and Eastman- Grossel again in the 200m. This time the Manchester junior pulled out the victory, running a new PR of 24.33 to move up to #11 all time in CT. The Lyme Old Lyme senior, who will be attending the Naval Academy in the fall, came out in 2nd place with Krop settling for 3rd in a new PR of 24.55.

Maya Quaranta of Sacred Heart Academy was a double winner taking the shot put with a distance of 42-06.5 and defended her title in the discus despite having some pain in her wrist. Her throw of 128-4 is a PR and the new CT #5. 

Also defending her title was New Canaan’s Lauren Smith. She threw a new PR of 132-4 and now has the 3rd best throw of the season going into New Englands.The senior, who will throw for Cornell next year also took 4th in the shot put. 

As expected Greenwich won the 4x800m and defeated Glastonbury, the defending champions by running a new CT #1 time of 9:18.43 with New Canaan taking 2nd in 9:21.33 barely holding off Glastonbury who was 3rd. 

Freshman Kaylin Diglio of Guilford tied her season best of 12-0 in the pole vault to claim her first State Open title.

While she has been competing in track and field since middle school, junior Hope Obremski of Sheehan only picked up the triple jump about three weeks ago. The experiment paid off with dividends as she won the Class M championship earlier in the week and claimed the State Open crown on Saturday with a school record jump of 37-2.0. 

Windsor had a monster day in the 4x100 when they defeated top seeded Hamden in the relays, winning in a time of 47.95. The Warriors already had the state’s best time of 47.37 from the CCCs which is also the top time in New England as well. 

In the high jump, Glastonbury’s Eloise Mulready had already tied her 33-year old school record at the Middletown Invitational. With the win in hand after clearing 5 '4 on her first jump, she moved the bar up to 5' 7 and made it on her third try to give her sole ownership of the Guardian record and a State Open title to boot. 

The meet finished off with Glastonbury’s foursome of Azariah Santavenere, Alissa Thompson-Webb, Olivia McKay and Audrey O'Hare holding off Woodstock Academy and Windsor in the 4x400m with a time of 3:56.61. The win not only clinched them the runner-up trophy, it moved them into the state lead for the 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.