What a difference a week makes in weather conditions in Connecticut as fans were treated to near perfect temperatures and drier track and field surfaces at the Middletown Varsity Invitational on Saturday. Many athletes took advantage of the high quality of their competitors as well as the conditions to better their performances in achieving some of the top ranked times and marks in the state this season. Although the meet on Saturday was preceded by a Frosh-Soph Invitational on Friday, several novice athletes chose to compete against the veterans on Saturday (Athletes were not allowed to compete on both days).
Girls Varsity Event Highlights
Frosh Samiya Eady (Manchester) was the 200m victor in her PR 24.91 from the next to last heat to become the state leader in a talented field that included seniors Avery Ruckert (Old Saybrook) 25.81 and Victoria Francis (Windsor) 25.52 who dueled in the final heat. Eady was also the gold medalist in the earlier 100m dash as she sped to a 12.39 in the finals after a PR of 12.34 in the prelims.
Gabriela DeFelice (New Canaan) had a monster of a day with 3 PRs, two of which are best in the state this spring. DeFelice started with a 2-ft PR with a discus throw of 132-3 with teammate Lauren Smith snagging her PR of 115-3 for second, Anna Siciliano (Hall) tossing her 6-ft PR 114-1 for third. DeFelice returned in the shot put to toss a 39-3 mark, a PR by over 2-ft as Peyton Sirdine (Bloomfield) gained 2nd with her PR of 37-3.
The duel between junior Katherine Bohlke (Newington) and frosh Chase Gilbert (Lyme-Old Lyme) didn’t materialize as Bohlke took the lead during the 1st lap to maintain a health 10m lead to win in a meet record and PR of 4:53.00 followed by Gilbert in 4:57.78 and Alexa Ciccone (Cheshire) in her PR of 5:01.37. The former meet record of 4:53.05 was set in 2014 by Danae Rivers (Wilbur Cross).
A meet record and state season best was set in the 300m hurdles by Kareema McKenzie (Windsor) as she blazed to her PR win in 44.31 that eclipsed the former meet best of 44.33 by Zaidra James (Bloomfield) in 2017. The second place by Squirrel Lanz (Cheshire) in a PR 45.14 and third place from Abigail Colella (Old Saybrook) in her PR 46.32 moved them to the top of the state rankings behind McKenzie this season. McKenzie was a double gold medalist as she had earlier won the finals of the 100m hurdles in her PR of 14.94.
The 400m produced a PR victory for Victoria Francis (Windsor) as she sped to 56.79 ahead of sophomore CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at RunnerSpace News…