MySportsResults.com – News – Windsor’s McKenzie Lowers 300mH State Record on Relays Weekend

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

41st Dan O’Grady Relays

Danbury, HS, Danbury CT

RESULTS-Day 1

RESULTS-DAY 2

It’s amazing what happens when you combine great athletes with great weather. Under sunny skies with a temperature of 60 degrees, records were broken left and right at the 41st edition of the Dan O’Grady Relays. 

The second event of the day on Saturday saw Windsor girls absolutely crush their own meet record in the 300m hurdles set last year by ten seconds. Three runners combined to run a time of 2:16.55. To make that type of performance requires an incredible amount of depth, but it certainly doesn’t hurt when one of your teammates sets the aCT state record in the process. 

Senior Kareema McKenzie crushed the field finishing three seconds in front of Jonathan Law’s Caden Simpson, herself a top six finisher at last year’s State Open. McKenzie’s individual time of 42.81 took down the record that was co-held by Jaliyah White of Hillhouse and Mariella Schweitzer of Joel Barlow of 43.18 set in 2015 and 2021. 

Not too long after McKenzie amazed the crowd, her teammates Tomari Gillespie (46.09) and Jordyn Williams (47.66) finished in 3rd and 4th places to clinch the overall win in the event. 

In the first event of the day an incredible distance medley was run featuring several of the top distance programs in the state. Simsbury held the early lead with East Lyme and Danbury hot on their tail. Entering the 1600m legs, Weston and E.O. Smith were a little further back. Weston’s Cameron Miles crept back into the lead pack by the end of his first lap and Smith’s Jack Mattingly joined the party with two laps to go, providing a great deal of drama. But Miles threw down a 1:01 closing lap and pulled out the win with Simsbury settling for second. Both teams broke their school records, went under Darien’s meet record and automatically qualified for New Balance Nationals with their times of 10:24.45 and 10:25.34. The 4:15 by Mattingly was the fastest 1600m split of the day while Miles ran a 4:17 leg. 

Windsor is obviously known as the premier sprint program in the state. Their school records are all over the CT all time top performance list and they have many of the short sprint relay records on the boys and girls side in the state. They came in with the state lead in the 4x100m but were surprised when Danbury crossed the line first in the 4x100m. Danbury had the #2 time in the state of 43.02 and were…