Girls State Open Indoor TF Championship Preview

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

There are 174 schools that compete in indoor track in Connecticut and the top 18 qualifiers in 15 events from the recent class meets will converge upon Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven at noon Saturday to crown the Girls’ State Open team and individual champions.

While there can only be one champion for each event, the top six place in all events, except the pole vault and sprint medley relays, will earn the opportunity to compete on March 4th at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston.

MySportsResults has been providing free coverage of CT’s track and field athletes all season long and we will do our best to preview some of the most exciting events to watch and look at who is in contention in the chase for the team titles.

Girls Championship

Developing depth in the 400m to 800m events is a terrific way to win an indoor track championship. Glastonbury has potential big points in three relays, the pole vault and the 600m. That would be enough to put them in contention, but then you add in points from Brooke Strauss who could be a winner in at least two events. She was Class LL champion in the 1000m and 1600m and third in the 3200m. She faced some tough challenges last weekend, and this Saturday will definitely be more of the same. They will be looking to move up from their fourth place finish last year.

Windsor has several possible places to score points. They will go head to head against Glastonbury in the 4x400m, sprint medley relay and 600m. But they also have potential points in the 55m dash, 55m hurdles and 300m. Victoria Francis is the top seed in the 300m and has a great shot at making finals in the 55m. Brittani Westberry is the defending State Open champion in the 600m and will try to bump back a pair of Glastonbury runners. One downside for the Warriors is that their 4x200m that has the state’s second fastest time did not finish the Class L race and didn’t qualify for the Open.

Perennial Class S champions Bloomfield will look to add a third State Open championship plaque to their resume. The WarHawks have the top seed in the 4x200m and potentially three girls in the finals of the 55m dash. Their 4x400m should also score highly. But points can certainly come fast and furious in the field events for Bloomfield. Freshman Payton Sirdine has been over 36-ft in the shot put a couple of times this season and could move up from her fifth seed. But they have two potential top six finishers in the long jump that include Laniyah Henderson who is looking to break 18-ft and Amyra Ettienne-Modeste who set a PR of 16’10.75” to take third in Class S. Bloomfield has events where they can certainly pick up points and if things fall their way, could be in the top two spots.

It will be fun to follow the team battle on Saturday because those three teams will go against each other in many events. According to the seeds Windsor and Bloomfield should be very close to each other, but if one team steps up, not only will they pick up points, but they will also knock down the other team’s total.

There are several girls’ teams that could score 25-30 points and could send a solid contingent to the New England championship including EO Smith, Greenwich, Conard, Shelton and Hillhouse.

Events Worth a Closer Look

600m

When Precious Holmes set the State Open record of 1:31.23 11 years ago, she totally dominated the competition, winning by six seconds and breaking the former record by almost four. At the time, that record seemed almost unbeatable. Junior Gabriella Hernandez of E.O. Smith has already run within a half of a second of that time and she should have competition close behind. Defending State Open champion Brittani Westberry of Windsor made a big jump from the Class meet to the Open last year to take the win. She will need to do it again because Glastonbury’s Annika Paluska has the exact same seed time from her Class LL win. Add Newtown’s Riley Powers to the mix, who last year came back from anchoring the winning 4x800m team to take third in the 600m at the Open, and you have a very competitive three lap race shaping up. Hernandez had earned the Athlete of the Week-5 honor.

Photo courtesy of John Nepolitan – https://open-photo.smugmug.com

Distance Races

Whatever races Glastonbury’s Brooke Strauss runs, will be exciting to watch. She is the top seed in the 1000m, 1600m and is seeded 6th in the 3200m. In the two shorter races she lurked in the pack and when Conard’s Liv Sherry made a breakaway move in the 1000m and her sister Tess did the same in the 1600m, both times Strauss made a furious kick over the last 50-meters and nipped each at the line. She did the same thing to hold off three runners in the 3200m to take second in the 3200m. The 1000m also has defending State Open champion Bria Benigni and the two longer races have state leader Katherine Bohlke of Newington who has become one of the fastest runners in state history in both events. These races will have to go out fast to neutralize Strauss’ finishing speed, but no matter how far behind she is, never count her out. Both Strauss and Bohlke were honored as Week-1 and Week-4 HOKA Athlete of the Week.

55m Hurdles

The hurdles will most likely be fast, but the question is, when will the fast time be run? Hillhouse’s Leonaya Knox has run her two fastest times of the season in the trials with her best of 8.05 the second fastest time in CT history. She has been competing in the hurdles, 55m and long jump the past few meets and all three events occur around the same time during the meet. It will be interesting to see if she will triple for team points or focus on two events to possibly break Tess Stapleton’s State Open record of 8.04. Wilton’s Jill Roberts false started in the Class L 55m race. While that was disappointing for the senior, it will allow her to focus on the hurdles and possibly challenge the Hillhouse junior for the title. Knox was the HOKA Athlete of the Week-3.

Shot Put

What is interesting in the shot put is that there isn’t one girl head and shoulders above the others. Yes, Shalisha Robertson of Hillhouse is undefeated this season with a season best of 41’6” from December, but she usually throws in the 36-38 ft range. There are five other girls who have thrown 36-ft this season so an average day from Robertson or a good day from any number of athletes could certainly mix up the standings quite a bit. It is almost guaranteed someone will pop one off and improve two feet or more on Saturday. Seven or eight girls have done it during practice, and they are just waiting to get a legal throw in a meet. Take Fairfield Ludlowe’s Zen Banks. She has accomplished that feat almost each meet this season and set her PR of 35’3.75” to win the Class LL meet which makes her the 4th seed. Just getting into the finals will be an accomplishment for any of these girls and whoever ends up winning will really need to step up to claim the title.

Pole Vault

The SouthWest Conference has been hot for the girls pole vault this season with Weston’s Ellison Weiner holding the season lead all season and Jordan Carr of Joel Barlow and Bethel’s Talia Graham following close behind taking the top three spots at their conference and Class M championships. Now add in Coginchaug’s Allison Vigue who was last year’s State Open runner-up and has gone over 11-ft several times this season. All together there are eleven girls over 10-ft and six over 10’6” this season so there is plenty of depth that adds lots of suspense in this event.

4x200m Relay

Nothing is ever guaranteed in the 4x200m relay. The State Open is littered with teams that false started, got cut off, pulled a muscle, or dropped the baton and failed to live up to expectations. But that is why this event is always worth watching. The unexpected often does happen. But Bloomfield’s team of Jahniya Barclay, Kiylah Williams, Caleah Baker and Sianna Lloyd has been consistently good all season long as were the HOKA Athletes of Week #6. The foursome has the state leading time of 1:43.12 from the U.S. Army Officials Hall of Fame Invitational at the Armory’s fast banked track and an even more impressive Class S record of 1:43.85 last week at Floyd Little’s flat track. With Windsor’s second fastest team in the state failing to advance, this should give the WarHawks a clear lane to run and little chance of getting bumped around. Danbury’s 13-year old Open record of 1:42.14 should get a scare.

Other Events To Watch

55m Dash

Last week’s Hoka Athlete of the Week was Shelton’s Audrey Kozak is the top seed at 7.13 after winning the Class L championships. She will have a busy day since she is also seeded highly in the high and long jump events. The Gael senior’s second best time of the year is 7.24 which puts her in range of Bloomfield’s Jahniya Barclay, Victoria Francis of Windsor and Greenwich’s Kaitlyn Fay.

300m

Class LL champion Victoria Francis of Windsor arrives with the top seed of 40.84 and has run under 41 seconds the past two meets. Caleah Baker won the CCC championships in a state leading time of 40.82. Francine Stevens of Staples is the only other girl who has gone under 41-seconds this season and hasn’t lost a race since December.

4x400m Relay

Windsor comes in as the state leader, the top seed and hasn’t been defeated in the event this indoor season. Glastonbury and Bloomfield, also in the hunt for the team title, will try to add points to their own score and take down the Warriors.

4x800m Relay

Glastonbury has six girls under 3:04 for the 1000m which gives them plenty of depth in the mid distance range. Brooke Strauss is not available for the relay since she already ran three individual events at the Class LL meet but the Guardians have plenty of quality runners to fill the four relay legs. Class S champions Lyme-Old Lyme will look to make an upset and is only a second behind based on times from the class meets.

1600 Sprint Medley Relay (200-200-400-800)

It must be a tough problem for Glastonbury coach Brian Collins to choose from a group of stars to fill out his relays. The Guardians come in as the top seed in the SMR as well. But in this relay, they will need a big lead because E.O. Smith has Gabby Hernandez on the anchor leg and she has already run some of the fastest times in state history in the 600m/800m events. She had a four second win in the Class L SMR and didn’t need to overextend herself. But she is surely capable of running faster if needed.

High Jump

You might as well just pull a name out of a hat to try to predict the high jump. There are seven girls seeded at 5’2” and three girls who have cleared 5’6” at some point this winter. Meg Barnouw of Fairfield Warde cleared 5’6” once and 5’4” to win FCIACs. CCC champion Avery Pitts of E.O. Smith has cleared the height twice and defending New England champion Audrey Kirkutis of Conard has gone over five and a half feet once.

Long Jump

Gabriella Zeller of Lewis Mills hasn’t leaped less than 17-ft this entire season and has a season best of 18’8” from the Class S meet last Thursday. Second seeded Darielys Arnold of New London is just a sophomore but has a bright future in front of her. She has also gone over 18-ft this season and just missed that barrier by a half-inch to win the Class M meet. Kozak from Shelton has also gone over 18-ft but will be bouncing back and forth between the jumps plus trials and finals of the 55m dash.

The latest CIAC Open records from the 2022 Indoor Track and Field Season are available below as a courtesy from MySportsResults sponsored by soundRUNNER with stores in Branford, Fairfield, Glastonbury and Old Saybrook.

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