Girls’ Track And Field Team Records Two Wins

By Kelley Baylis

Newtown High School’s girls’ outdoor track and field team defeated two of three teams in the season-opening meet at Joel Barlow in Redding on Monday. Newtown defeated Brookfield 92-58 and Immaculate of Danbury 100-46, and fell to Barlow 103-47.

The Nighthawks had many first-place finishes, as many of the returning athletes along with some newcomers, did not fail to shine at the first meet.

Reagan Cerney, a junior, raked in a first place finish in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:26.4, and was fourth in the long jump.

“I was really happy with my results for the meet. I have to keep in mind that this was only the first meet so I still have a lot of training left to do before championships,” Cerney said. “I think overall as a team we did really well for the first meet of the season.”

Another returner, senior Lauren O’Connell, brought in two first-place results. O’Connell finished first in the triple jump (with a 33-3) and pole vault (10-0) events. Melissa Buccino had wins in the 100 hurdles (16.6) and 300 hurdles (49.0).

Coach Doug Russell was impressed with the outcome of the girls’ team’s first meet of the season. “I was very pleased with our performance. Joel Barlow was strong but we had a number of younger girls on our team perform very well against them,” Russell said.

The first meet gave Russell and the athletes a good idea of where improvement needs to be made. “I felt confident in our distance races but we have some work to still do in developing our sprints,” Russell said.

It also showed Russell where the strength lies within the team. “In the field events we had a number of girls qualify for the South West Conference (championships) and states,” Russell said.

“The main emphasis of the regular season is to get your strong competitors and as many other student athletes to qualify for SWC Championship and State Class LL. We are on our way,” the coach added.