By Owner/Editor Ron Knapp
In the first of two CIAC Indoor Track and Field meets at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Saturday, the athletes in the Class L Championships provided fans with record setting performances in several events as the Xavier boys and the Windsor girls successfully defended their titles from last year.
Although the path to a third consecutive team title by the Xavier boys in scoring their 95 points was similar to their SCC title last weekend, they had to withstand strong challenges from second place Bethel (81 points) and third place Windsor (53 points).
The meet started with a bang as the Windsor 4x200m quartet of Taeshawn Berry, Maxim Copeland, Damion Sparrow, and Jordan Crain set a meet record in 1:30.46, their second fastest time of the season.
Xavier countered with a come from behind win in the 4×800 relay as their team of Xavier Laudati, James Adu, Landon Rubano and Ian Schmeelk gradually reduced the early lead by Bristol Central to win in 8:26.01.
Another 32 points for Xavier was gained in the distance events. The 1000m featured a wire to wire win by Newtown’s Soheib Dissa in 2:33.24 as Falcon Owen Martin placed second. Xavier’s Jack Oullette had a busy day as he placed first in the 1600m in 4:24.11 and then a 4th place in the 3200m behind the winning performance of 9:31.58 by teammate John Larkin.
Field events also helped propel Xavier to the title as they racked-up 30 points from first places by Oliver Guzy in the long jump (23-3.75) and Hunter Feitel in the pole vault (14-6), both school records. Lucas and Jacob Harkins combined to score another 10 points with their 3-4 places behind a winning toss of 54-03.5 by Bethel’s Greyson Golda.
EO Smith’s Jack Mattingly has raced sparingly this season but his first place finish in the 600m of 1:23.62 vaults him into a contending position in the Open with a CT #3 time this season.
Deandre Duncan of Harding blazed a win in the 55m finals in 6.44, a new CT#1 ranking this season that provides additional excitement to an already fast group of Open competitors.
As the state’s leading 300m runner, Maxim Copeland of Windsor had no problem holding off teammate Taeshawn Berry in a winning time of 34.79 that was only 4 one hundredths shy of the meet record by Weaver’s Daundre Barnaby set in 2009. Berry returned in the 4x400m to combine with Jordan Crain, Damion Sparrow and Hunter Howard to win in 3:30.44.
The 75 points earned by the Windsor girls earned them…
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