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

ENTRIES/LIVE RESULTS

FAN GUIDE

On Saturday afternoon and evening, many of the best high school track and field athletes in New England will descend upon The Reggie Lewis Center in Boston for the 36th Annual New England Interscholastic Indoor Track and Field Championships. Six athletes and relay teams from the six state region have qualified and the winners will receive plaques with the top six earning medals. Let’s take a look at a few of the events that just might provide the most excitement among CT track and field fans. 

Girls 55m Hurdles

To be a championship hurdler, you normally have very good speed. It should be a common double to run the high hurdles and the dash but it isn’t because the events are back to back which makes it hard to do. But Hillhouse’s Leonaya Knox has built her career around the double and even set the CT state record in the 100m hurdles after trials of both events. On Saturday, the senior will only compete in the 55m hurdles which will hopefully allow her to focus and break her season best time of 7.99. Knox will be looking to not only defend her title, she will also be looking to better Tess Stapleton’s meet and CT state record of 7.88. New Hampshire state champion Anika Scott is a 20-feet long jumper and 5th at New Englands last year in the hurdles. If she is on, she could potentially be a double gold medalist but she will have to go through Knox to do it. 

Girls 4x800m

Going for a team title often means a school needs to spread out their relay runners to get points in individual events. Glastonbury has already run a New England leading time of 9:06.83 to take 4th place at the Millrose Games. But at the Open, only two of those girls ran the relay and as a display of the Guardian’s depth, they still took 2nd behind Hall in a time of 9:44.37. But word on the street is they are putting their four best runners on the relay with a look to break Newton South’s meet record of 9:04.13, set in 2009. The fun thing is both Glastonbury coach Brian Collins and Newton South coach Steven McChesney have been friends for years dating back to when the Mass team would attend the Hartford Riverfront Cross Country Festival in the late 2010s and the two teams would have a team dinner together before racing the next day. Last year Glastonbury set the CT state record to win the title, but just missed the meet record by just over a second. Hall is the top seed and easily won the State Open by 16 seconds and will welcome a more competitive field and there is always a possibility State Open 600m champion Esme Daplyn could be moved into Greenwich’s relay which could greatly improve the Cardinal’s team. 

Boys 4x800m

Ridgefield boys always hold their cards close to their chest. They have run a slightly different line up in three meets, running between 8:01 and 8:07 in the 4x800m. Steven Hergenrother just ran a New England best of 2:23.88 in the 1000m and Charles Lovett ran 2:29.47, the 18th fastest time in CT history. Add in Magnus Manley’s 2:31.40 at the BU David Hemery Valentine Invitational and you have three boys who are significantly under 2:00 minutes for the 800m. If they are pushed then Suffield’s five-year-old New England meet record of 7:51.22 could be breached. Hall is seeded 5th in 8:06.96 but they might improve their relay with the addition of sub-2-minute 800m runner Jon York who was injured at the Class meets and did not qualify as an individual. One thing the CT teams must be aware of is the fact that the Mass teams run their relays toward the end of the meet and since New England holds the relay as the first event and they will be more likely to be fresher. 

Girls 4x200m

Bloomfield, the State Open champions, possesses New England’s fastest time and won the regional title last year in the girls 4x200m. With three runners returning from last year’s team and the addition of freshman Saphyr Brown, who has one of the top ten 55m times in the state this winter, you have the makings of another championship team. They have already 1:41.52 at the Armory Officials Hall of Fame Invitational which is just .05 seconds off Danbury’s 14-year-old record. The War Hawks should be challenged by their CCC rivals Windsor and East Hartford who are also looking to drop their season best times on Reggie Lewis’s fast banked track. 

Boys 4x200m

Windsor has New England’s fastest time in the 4x200m in 2024 with their time of 1:29.57. The Warrior had an injury to one of their runners at the State Open and their coach Kelvan Kearse had to teach freshman Caneil Goldson how to do handoffs, only an hour before the race started. Windsor still won, and that performance still put them as the number two seed on Saturday, even though they ran on a flat track. If the State Open champions are healthy and they are back to their mid season form under 1:30, they have a shot at their own New England meet record of 1:29.23 set in 2015. They will have to deal with MA Meet of Champions winner Xaverian Brothers who is on the cusp of breaking 1:30.

Girls 1-mile

In a few years from now, we just might look back on the mid 2020s as the glory days of CT girls distance running. Several of the fastest girls in CT history are toeing the line week after week and providing fans plenty to cheer for. State Open 1600m champion Kate Bohlke has already run the 2nd fastest times in state history in the 1000m and mile races. Her time of 4:45.49 is the 10th fastest time in the nation and only a few tenths of a second off Cecci Hopp’s 43-year-old state record. If she can get close to her PR Newton South’s Lucy Jenks' meet record of 4:49.57 could go down as well. Charlotte Tuxbury of Wellesley, MA broke 5-minutes for the third time this season to win the MIAA Meet of Champions. The junior started out in 2:31 and ran the second half in 2:25 which gave her confidence that a sub 4:50 mile might be in her future. Also, never discount Conard’s Tess Sherry who was 2nd at the State Open and last year at New Englands. She has dipped under 4:50 before as well. Maine’s Cary Drake often has big leads in her in state races and always steps it up when she has faster competition at New Englands could be a factor as well. 

Girls 1000m

Another example of the glory days of CT girls distance running is Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss. She has the 3rd fastest mile time in state history and led her team to the State Open team title, scoring highly in the three longest distance events. She is scheduled to run a leg of the 4x800m at the beginning of the meet, but there should be plenty of recovery before she races the 1000m where she is the top seed. It will be a replay of the State Open with Maloney’s Bria Benigni and Liv Sherry of Conard pushing her the entire way. CT athletes shouldn’t overlook North Andover’s Erika Wojcik who has vastly improved this winter and has already run mid 2:50s twice this winter and could go even lower. 

Boys 1000m

The race of the day at the New Hampshire Division II Championship had to be Lucian Gleiser and Jamie Lano battling to the line in the 1000m with both running 2:27, the 2nd and 3rd fastest times in NH history. Besides watching a pair of Granite State athletes running fast, this just might provide Newtown’s Soheib Dissa more of a challenge than he has faced in the past couple of weeks. They junior has already run a 4:13 mile and 8:35 for 3k, so a sub 2:30 should be doable. But the question is, how low under 2:30 can he run? To add a twist to this meet, New Hampshire’s DI champion Jacob Redman ran a 2:28 earlier in the season, but only has a 2:34 qualifying time and will most likely be placed in the slower heat. This should be an event that will be incredibly difficult to win a medal. 

Boys Shot Put

Two years ago Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan and Max Klein went back and forth with both of them breaking the meet record in the shot put. Robinson-O'Hagan, who is seeded as #2 in the NCAA Division I National Championships next week came away with the win with his throw of 67-10.5 and Klein was only three inches behind. While nothing that dramatic is expected to occur on Saturday, junior Thomas Matlock of East Lyme has been having a special season and could get very close to the record. His New England leading throw of 63-0.25 puts him at #5 in the US this season and with another year in front of him, Gary Moore’s state record of 64-4.0 could be on the agenda and with a little luck perhaps even a New England record could be within reach. To win this meet Matlock still has to overcome Alex Jackson (Peabody, MA) and Winslow Sightler (Burlington, VT) who have both broken 60-feet this season and of course there is his ECC rival Chris Amy only inches away from 60-feet this season. It is looking like we are entering a new era in the shot put where the upper 50’s just won’t bring home the gold any more. 

Girls Shot Put

Last year Hall’s Anna Siciliano showed her potential in the shot put, surprising many by taking second at the Indoor State Open. This year the senior has found consistency going over 40-feet the last five meets with a New England leading best of 42-0.5 from the CCC championships. Elena Chaplin of Ludlow, MA was 2nd last year and will be looking to move up a spot. She set her PR of 41-9 to win the MA Meet of championships last week. Hillhouse’s Shalisha Robertson has been busy the past few weeks running the trials and finals of the 55m and 55m hurdles along with tossing the shot put. She didn’t qualify for the dash on Saturday so that might just give her the added rest to improve upon her season best of 41-0.25 and contend for the win. Anyway you look at it the girls shot put is going to be hot with five girls over 40-feet this winter and 12 over 39-feet. 

Boys 300m

The boys 300m could be a race for the ages. Haverhill’s Natanael Vigo Catala is the New England leader in the event with his time of 34.25 from the MIAA Division I championships. His seed time is only a step away from Olympian Daundre Barnaby’s meet record of 34.17. The Haverhill senior is a strong finisher, but has stated he needs to get out better if he wants to improve his time. He will probably have to break the record to even have a chance at winning the race because Windsor’s Maxim Copeland is coming in with an identical seed time of 34.25. One significant advantage the Connecticut State Open champion has is that he ran his time on Hillhouse’s flat track. The same performance on a banked track should be approaching a sub 34 seconds time, but even if the pair don’t break the record, fans are sure to see two all time great runners battle it out in a head to head sprint.

Girls 2-mile

After a heartbreaking injury that ended her outdoor season early last spring and limited her training during the fall, defending 2-mile champion Hannah Andrejczyk is beginning to look like her former self just in time for the biggest meets of the season. The Shelton senior went out conservatively at the State Open and pulled out a 2:30 last 800m to win in a season best of 10:54.84 which puts her as the top seed. She will contend with Ava Malagisi who is running New Englands for the first time as an individual and is getting more and more experience in her first season of running indoor track as a senior for Ridgefield. Erin vonHousen of Chariho Regional, RI has already run under 5-minutes for the mile and 10:07 for the 3000m and could run a low 10:50 for 2-miles with the right competition. But the runner who is the most dangerous if she is still in the mix at the end of the race could be Nashoba Regional’s Caroline Collins who won the Mass Meet of Champions 2-mile by 2.5 seconds with a 31 second last lap to blow by her competitors. Her brother Freddy was the Mass 2-mile champion two years ago and just broke 4 minutes for the mile running for Boston University a couple of weeks ago. A final runner of note is Houlton, ME’s Teanne Ewings, who has the fastest time in New England this winter with a 10:28.43 from December 29th. She was 2nd in the New England Cross Country Championships and has a lot of potential to contend for the title. 

Boys Long Jump

There are four boys who have already leaped over 23-feet this season that are entered in the boys long jump. Winnacunnet’s Oliver Duffy is the New England leader in the event with a best of 23-5 from the New Hampshire Division I championship and within two inches of that mark are two Connecticut jumpers Makye Wade of Capital Prep and Xavier’s Oliver Guzy who both set their PRs at the CIAC Class meets. Mansfield’s Chamberlain Guthrie broke the barrier by a half of an inch and Amity’s Micah Blair jumped 22-10 just over a week ago at Eastern States. If any of those athletes sets a PR, Alex Niemiec’s meet record of 23-10.0 will be within reach. 

Boys High Jump

New England has three boys who have soared over 6-7 in the high jump with another six over 6-6 this season. Khalil Antoine of Hillhouse is the New England leader, having already cleared 6-10 twice this winter and he was second last year at New Englands with a height of 6-7. Camren Allain was 3rd last year at New Englands and set a new PR of 6-8 at the MA Division 5 Championships two weeks ago. But Bloomfield’s Ja'Mari Manson popped off a PR of 6-7 last winter to grab the win at last year’s meet and matched that height to win the Yale Invitational in January this season. 

4x400m Relays

Fans should be treated to more excitement at the end of the meet in the 4x400m relays. The girls final fast heat features the top 6 teams with seed times under 4:06 led by Wachusett Regional-MA with their sub-4-minute 3:59.49 followed by EO Smith-CT, Hall-CT, Classical RI, Glastonbury-CT and Bloomfield-CT. 

The boys 4x400m relay should continue to provide a frenzy of fast times as well since the top 6 seeded teams are 3:30 or faster with Haverhill-MA the top seed at 3:25.16. CT Open winner Lyman Hall is next at 3:26.03 followed by North Hampton-MA, Norwell-MA, Barrington-RI and Windsor-CT

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