Girls Earn 83.5 Points As O’Connell Wins Pole Vault And Triple Jump Events

By Kelley Baylis

BETHEL — Newtown High School’s girls’ track and field team finished third in the South-West Conference championships, in the rain, at Bethel High School on Monday.

Weston was first with 102.5 points, New Milford second with 102 points, then came Newtown with 83.5 points.

Coach Doug Russell was not disappointed with the third place finish to say the least. “I definitely had a goal for us to finish in the top three and that is what we did. Even with the weather not so great the girls stepped it up and did an exceptional job. We placed pretty consistently with our seeds and even exceeded some. We actually scored more points on the track than I expected and had some outstanding performances,” Russell said.

“It’s always more exciting running at championship meets. More people are there to cheer for you, and more people are there to watch. There is a lot more competition at these meets, which makes it more nerve wracking, but Newtown has proven that we perform well under pressure,” senior Erin Begg said of the her last SWC championship.

Megan Condon and Amy Anyoha, after warming up, said they looked forward to individual performances resulting in a collective strong finish for the Hawks.

 “This has been my most successful season I have ever had. I am looking forward to ending the year as well as making memories along the way,” said Condon, a senior.

Anyoha still has two more years of competing in SWC championships left, so she shared her goals for the rest of her high school track career. “I obviously would love to improve over the next two years, plus it would really cool to make it to New Englands [Championships],” Anyoha said.

The 4x800 meter relay team earned fifth place finish. Run by Reagan Cerney, Cassandra Fallon, Hannah Schwartz, and Jenny vanVeen the girls began the meet with a great start.

The Nighthawks had two strong finishes in the 100 meter hurdles, with Melissa Buccino finishing second, and Zoe Eggleston right behind her for third. Buccino also finished fifth in the 300 meter hurdles.

The 800 meter was one of the most exciting events of the afternoon. Cerney finished second, breaking the SWC record in the process, along with running three seconds faster than her original seed time as she finished in 2:18.17. Maggie Christe from Immaculate of Danbury also broke the record and finished first in 2:17.76.

The girls on the field had no trouble bringing in points for the team, with the majority of them placing in all of their events. Russell commented said that the field event competitors have done exceptionally well this season, the best he has ever seen.

In discus, Anyoha finished second, and following her was Micaela Nowacki. Anyoha also finished fifth in shot put. Brianna Hart finished second in high jump, while Lauren O’Connell placed first in triple jump.

O’Connell broke yet another record, this time an SWC record, finishing first in the pole vault event, with a height of 11 feet, 7 inches.

“We go on to states next week (Class LL) and we should perform well there and should hopefully have some qualify for State Opens. The team this year has been an exceptional team and the great thing is that we are very young,” Russell said.