Newtown High School’s  Cody Cullens set a school indoor long jump record with his leap of 18 feet 8.5 inches at the Southern Connecticut Conference Coaches’ Invitational at the New Haven Track and Field Center at Hillhouse High School this past Saturday.

The track team sent 30 of its members to compete at the invitational against other teams from across Connecticut and parts of New York.

Cullens’ jump not only increased his qualification distance for the South-West Conference Championships on Saturday, but also qualified him for a spot in the Class LL State Championships to be held on February 7.

 Kelley Sullivan also qualified for the state championships in the girls’ 600-meter dash with a time of 1:49.19. Sullivan had previously qualified for the state championships in the girls 300 meter dash and she cut that qualifying time down to 45.97 seconds.

 Sara Pollock improved on her SWC and state meet qualifying time in the 3200-meter dash with a time of 12:30.86 as Lauren Sudbey stretched her long jump qualification to 15 feet 5.5 inches for both championship meets. Sarah Grose improved on her previous SWC girls’ 55-meter hurdles qualifying time by registering a 10.31.

 Two other team members qualified for the SWC Championships. Natalie Villa clocked into the girls’ 1000-meter dash with a time of 3:29.29 and Mara Scallon qualified in the girls 1600-meter dash with a time of 5:59.19.

 In addition to the individual qualifiers, each school is allowed to enter one team in each of the relay events at the SWC Championships. However, competitors are only allowed to participate in a maximum of three events including relays. The SWC championships are scheduled to begin at 5 pm this Saturday at the New Haven Track and Field Center.