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

After three months of competition, the state leaderboard was rewritten in one day at New Balance Nationals Indoor in many events with more to come on Saturday and Sunday. Boys relay teams from Ridgefield and Hall as well as EO Smith girls took home All-American honors. MySportsResults will continue our complete coverage of the meet and highlight a few of the most noteworthy events.

Ridgefield boys had the highest finish among Connecticut teams on Friday with a third place finish in the boys distance medley championship relay. The team won the second of three heats in a time of 10:09.56 to become the fourth fastest team in state history. Only Darien, anchored by Alex Ostberg, Staples anchored by Henry Wynne and Glastonbury with a team that included 2x Olympian Donn Cabral have run faster. Liam Edson led off on the 1200m leg splitting 3:12.75 and handed off to Ethan Walls who ran 400m in 51.19. Isaac Graber split 1:56.58 for 800m and State Open cross country champion Steven Hergenrother brought it home with a 1600m split of 4:09.05. This was an improvement over their 5th place finish last year at NBNI with only Hergenrother and Walls returning from that squad.

The girls from E.O. Smith put an exclamation mark on an outstanding season by taking sixth in the Championship 1600m Sprint Medley Relay. They won the first of seven progressively faster heats, finishing in a time of 4:06.53. Katelyn Shirshac and Jadyn Hamley ran the 200m legs and Navia Casa split a 59.38 to move the Panthers into the top spot in their heat with New England 600m champion Gabriella Hernandez taking it home with a 2:13.23 in the 800m leg. The time moves them to the fourth fastest school in state history, only behind Hillhouse, Norwich Free Academy and Wilbur Cross and improves their season best of 4:17.60.

Hall seems to specialize in the 1600m sprint medley relay. They won the New Balance Nationals Outdoor championship in 2019 and medaled in that meet in 2021 and 2022. Last year they were5th at the indoor championship and on Friday afternoon the Titans delivered once again to take sixth with a new school record of 3:31.75. Sam Sandler and Charles Cameron ran the 200m legs, handing off to Jon York who blazed to a 48.08 400m split. Gabe Sisk, the New England 600m runner-up, closed the deal with a 1:57.40 800m split. Hall is now the fourth fastest time in CT history.

Also, running an outstanding SMR was Conard who took second in the Girls Rising Stars section. This team is the true definition of rising stars as it consisted of freshman Annabel Tracy, junior Gracelyn Williams and sophomores Tess Sherry and Liv Sherry. The team ran the 11th fastest time in CT history, finishing in 4:10.12 with a total of five teams running faster than Glastonbury’s State Open winning time of 4:17.05.

In a repeat of what has happened several times this year, Hall barely finished in front of Greenwich who finished only one second, but six places behind. Caleb You, Harrison Goldenberg, Gianluca Bianchi and Antonio Ciccarelli took 12th overall with a time of 3:32.78, the fifth fastest time in state history.

Tolland also finished under Ridgefield’s State Open winning time with four other teams breaking 3:40.

Just like Greenwich and Hall ’s relays have battled it out all year, their superstars Gianluca Bianchi and Sam Sandler have done the same in their individual duels. While Sandler struck the first blow this season winning the Class LL 300m in a meet record, Bianchi has taken the State Open and New England titles. Competing in separate heats the Greenwich senior finished by running a new FCIAC record of 48.45 to take 21st overall in the Championship preliminary heats. Any list of greatest Connecticut long sprinters now has to include Bianchi as he has run the state’s fifth fastest time in 300m and has now become the state’s fourth fastest 400m runner.

Bianchi might not have accomplished all he has without his rival Sandler pushing him in every postseason race. The Hall senior finished 46th with a new PR of 49.32, which moves him up to number eight all time in CT history.

Another outstanding 400m performance was recorded by Gabby Hernandez of EO Smith as she finished 26th in the championship race in a time of 57.03 to make her the fourth fastest runner in state history.

While the boys 400m was dominated by Bianchi and Sandler, the girls 2-mile saw another strong rivalry continue with Shelton’s Hannah Andrejczk and Chase Gilbert of Old Lyme. Both have continued to improve their times in each of the last four races. Andrejczyk took 25th place in the early heat of thechampionship race in CT’s fourth fastest time ever. Her time of 10:34.21 puts her 21-seconds behind Hannah Debalsi’s state record and she might just get it next year. But to do it, she will need to be pushed and Gilbert is just the adversary to do it. The freshman has exploded on the scene this year with a second place finish at the State Open and New Englands. She set another PR, moving up to 6th on CT’s all-time list with a time of 10:43.42.

As an indication of how strong CT track has become there are just too many outstanding performances to describe each one in detail. But MySportsResults has compiled all our athletes who competed on Friday in one place to make it easier for fans to follow. Many of these are school records and we will be happy to update these results if you contact Marty Ogden at mogdenxc@gmail.com and Ron Knapp at mysportsresults@gmail.com .

Stay tuned for a gallery of pics from Friday action at the New Balance Indoor Nationals available later today!

soundRUNNER Spring Spike Month/Nights

It’s almost time for Spike Month to start at all four SoundRunner stores. Athletes and coaches will get 20% off spikes and 15% off everything in the store (unless it is already discounted) beginning March 20 through April 21.

Coaches, if you want to arrange for a Spike Night or Morning then please contact a Store Manager at your local store listed below. If your athletes cannot attend a spike night then they can come into one of four stores during those dates and get the discount as well.

Branford – dean.tresca@soundrunner.com

Fairfield – eileen.gould@soundrunner.com

Glastonbury – darren.elledge@soundrunner.com

Old Saybrook – nick.cunningham@soundrunner.com