By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp
Meet Info
Tuesday May 30, Field Events at 10:00 a.m., Running Events at 10:30 a.m.
Defending champions – Boys: Stonington and Girls: Sheehan
2022 Runners up: Boys: Lewis Mills and Girls: Weston
Boys Teams to Watch: Tolland, Suffield, Stonington, Killingly
Girls Teams to Watch: Sacred Heart, Plainville, Career, Mercy
Boys Events to Watch:
What can we say about the rivalry between Josh Mooney (Stonington)and Michael Johnson (Lewis Mills) that hasn’t already been reported? The pair have been dueling back and forth the past three years in the hurdles and we will see two of Connecticut’s greatest hurdle competitors race for the last time in high school before they continue their relationship as teammates at UConn next year. Johnson had the fastest 110m hurdle time in the state last year and was New England champion. But Mooney was the Open champion last year and tied the CT state record in the 55m hurdles this past winter season. The finals of the 110m hurdles should be amazing as we very well may see both eclipse the 14-second mark. Mooney is also the top seed in the 300m hurdles as well as the state leader in the javelin and Johnson will stick to the flat races where he is among the top seeds in the 400m and 200m.
Griffin Mandirola hasn’t been pushed to his capabilities often this season in the NCCC. The Suffield junior was 2nd at the Cross Country State Open and will probably be pushed by ECC champion Ryan Gruczka of Stonington who has several sub-4:20 efforts in the 1600m to his credit. Gruczka will probably move down to the 800m where he is seeded 2nd and could even run the 3200m. While he comes in with a seed time of 10:28, he has run in the low 9:40s several times, including last year when he finished 2nd in Class M after running the 4x800m and 1600m prior to his final race. Mandirola comes in with the top seed in the 3200m with a time of 9:22 which is over 30-seconds in front of the second seed.
Besides Mandirola, Suffield boasts multiple time pentathlon All-American Avery Cipcic. He is the top seed in the high and long jumps plus the third seed in the 110m hurdles. The talented senior is ranked in the top six in CT in all three events and could see a very busy next couple of weeks leading up to either the New Balance National or CIAC decathlon at the end of the season.
Tolland has people ready to score in a variety of events and their depth will be on display in the…
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