By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp
6th CT Distance Festival
Friday, April 19, 2024
Meet Photos by Craig Rosenberg
Video Replay by West Hartford Community Interactive
In a few years from now, we will look back on this time as the one of the glory days of CT girls distance running. It’s not just one dominant girl but depth is on display every big meet. On Friday night, the girls mile lived up to expectations at the 6th CT Distance Festival held at Hall HIgh School in West Hartford with boys and girls competing in the classic distance of the mile and the Olympic 5000m distance many will run in college.
Defending State Open 1600m champion Tess Sherry of Conard went right to the lead for the first half of the mile race, taking the field through the 809 mark in 2:27.75 with seven girls within a half of a second. Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss, the Open and New England 1000m champion took over at that point, trying to separate herself from All American miler Kate Bohlke of Newington but to no avail. Bohlke has learned to run like a college runner and just sat in the pack and waited to strike, using a 1:07 last lap to pull away from the field winning in 4:49.27. She not only broke the meet record, but she ran the 9th fastest time nationally and the 5th fastest time in state history.
Strauss held on for 2nd, also breaking the meet record and running the 20th fastest time nationally and the 11th fastest time in CT all time. While Tess Sherry lost her meet record, she too, went under the record running US #24 time of 4:53.72. Lyme Old Lyme’s Chase Gilbert also broke into the all time CT list running 4:55.00, good for 13th. Rhode Island’s indoor 1500m and cross country champion Rory Sullivan hung on to break 5-minutes and finished 5th in 4:59.43.
Class S 1000m champion Lily Tabellione of Portland led the way early in the 5000m with New Milford’s Izzy Greene lurking behind the first half of the race. Once Greene made her move she quickly built up a sizable lead, eventually winning in 18:26.46, a Nike Outdoor Nationals qualifying time. New Hampshire’s Anna Fondakowski of Bishop Guertin eventually crept into second finishing in 18:49.04 with Tabellione settling for 3rd in 18:55.43.
The girls weren’t the only ones who put up some big performances on Friday night under the lights. The boys shined in the mile as well and had some additions to the CT all time list in the 5000m.
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