By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Associate Correspondent Brynn Sherry, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp
Photos – Track & Field Events by Ron Knapp
Photos – Field Events by Craig Rosenberg
After a long hard year that saw East Lyme take second at the State Open and New Englands in cross country and tie for third during indoor track, the focus for the Vikings shifted from team goals to individual ones for Saturday’s CIAC Outdoor Track & Field State Open Championship. That change led to the team’s first ever State Open title when they held off Ridgefield who defeated them in the fall. But unfortunately, East Lyme will have to wait until Monday afternoon to receive their plaque because a line of storms arrived at Willowbrook Park with four high jumpers still remaining in the competition. While East Lyme has mathematically clinched the title, there is an outside chance that Bloomfield could tie for 2nd with Ridgefield if their remaining jumper, Ethan Rowe clears 6-8 on one of his two remaining jumps and then goes on to set a PR of 6-10 to move ahead of current leader Brodie Scott of Watertown.
After losing a couple of dual meets and the ECC championship due to some end of the season injuries, the focus for East Lyme was on individual accomplishments instead of the team goals in the postseason. Their top distance boys didn’t double at the Class MM Championship to keep their legs fresh for the Open, New Englands and Nationals.
“People said we are going to be in it but when you have this small of a group, everything has to go pretty much perfectly” said East Lyme coach Mike Flynn. “We didn’t talk about winning. We joked about it but typically all those things have to go perfect and they don’t usually go the right way. At the end of the season, you just need a bunch of studs and we felt pretty good about our guys.”
The throws and distance events have been the bedrock of East Lyme the past few years and they didn’t disappoint on Saturday. Thomas Matlock and Norwich Free Academy’s Chris Amy have been trading State Open titles and even records the past three years in the shot put, but this time Matlock came out on top. The Mississippi State commit broke Andre Reid’s 24-year old State Open record on his 5th throw with a distance of 62-09.75. He followed that up with a PR in the discus of 175-6 to take 2nd to provide 18 important points for his team.
Junior Sam Leone pushed eventual winner CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at RunnerSpace News…