Zeller, Sherry, Williams, York Awarded Week 10 HOKA Athletes of the Week

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

Connecticut has a great tradition of bringing all the best athletes together to compete in one overall State Open championship. The best of the best met last Saturday, and no one held back during the exciting competition. In celebrating those performances, the 10th HOKA Athletes of the Week honors a track and a field athlete in each gender this week!

Conard’s Liv Sherry of Conard has been named the HOKA Girls Track Athlete of the Week while Gabriella Zeller of Lewis Mills has earned the HOKA Girls Field Athlete of the Week award.

The HOKA Boys Field Event Athlete of the Week is awarded to Ridgefield’s Lucas William and the HOKA Boys Track Event Athlete of the Week award recipient is Jonathan York of Hall.

Through the generosity of HOKA, soundRUNNER, and Marathon Sports the four athletes receiving the honor will also be sent a commemorative t-shirt in recognition of their outstanding performances last weekend.

In only her second season of high school running, Liv Sherry is gaining experience and already pushing the limits of her considerable talent. Last week, the Conard sophomore made a long drive from 400m out to try to win the Class LL 1000m title but was nipped at the line by fast charging Brooke Strauss of Glastonbury. At the Open, Sherry left nothing to chance and took the race out hard from the very first step, daring the other runners to come with her. Even though the gap narrowed over the last lap, the Conard runner easily won by two seconds in a time of 2:55.87 which moves her into the top 20 nationally.

It’s taken a few years, but Gabriella Zeller of Lewis Mills has finally found her event. She only competed in the long jump last year in the CIAC Heptathlon but this winter she has focused on the event and earned the Class S and Open titles. She leaped 18′ 5.25″ on her 5th attempt and overtook Shelton’s Audrey Kozak who was second with the same distance. It came down to their second best jumps to determine the winner with Zeller jumping one inch farther to grab the title. Zeller‘s season best of 18’8″ from the Class S championship is not only the state leading jump, but also ranks in the top 20 nationally this season.

Lucas Williams of Ridgefield has been the state leader in the pole vault all season long and he tied the Class LL record with his friends Derek Amlicke of Staples and Liam Wright of Hall. While the senior, who recently committed to Bucknell University, lost the Class title to Amlicke, he came back a week later motivated to win the State Open championship with a new PR of 15’0”. The performance moved Williams up to 33rd nationally and qualified him for the Championship section of New Balance Nationals Indoor.

Photo courtesy of Coach Bryan Kovalsky

Never count Hall’s Jonathan York out of any race. For the second year in a row, he has surprised everyone and won a State Open title from a slower heat. Last year, as a sophomore he won the 300m and this year he sped to the win in the 600m from the second of three heats. York also was part of the fourth place 4x200m team and then helped his team set a new Open meet record in the 4x400m as he played a large part in Hall’s second straight team title.