The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Middletown boys 2nd to Hall in Class L track meet
Blue Dragons lose lead in final event
MIDDLETOWN — If the Class L state track championships had 17 events instead of 18, the Middletown High boys would be talking about winning a second straight title.
Tuesday’s meet, however, came down to the 4x400 relay, an event Middletown hasn’t filled this year because of injury and lack of depth. The Blue Dragons’ one-point lead evaporated with Hall’s second-place finish in the race. The title went to the Warriors 73-66.
Bristol Central finished third with 63.5 points, followed by New Milford (63), Hartford Public (45) and Xavier (44).
“There’s definitely mixed emotions. We wanted to repeat,” Middletown head coach Jenn Price said. “We had some unfortunate things happen and we had kids step up today that kept us in it until the end.”
In the girls meet, Windsor dominated the sprints and ran away with the title with 92 points, 24 more than runner-up Hall. Simsbury, Pomperaug and Conard rounded out the top five. Middletown was eighth on the strength of first-place throws by Veronica Meyer in the javelin and discus.
The Middletown boys’ quest for another title was complicated by three factors: The 4x100 relay team could not connect twice on handoffs and did not finish the race; sprinter Garrett Dandridge pulled up about 10 yards from the finish in the 100 meters and did not finish; and that leg injury kept him from competing in the 200 and 400 meters, where he was a favorite to win at least one title or at worst contribute points to the team’s title run.
“Not being able to put together a successful 4x100 race and having injuries continued to affect us,” Price said, “but there were some amazing performances by some of our kids, specifically DeAaron Lawrence and Dylan Drescher. They did an awful lot of good and they really kept us in it.”
They were among several positive takeaways from Middletown athletes on a day that began in intense heat and ended under the lights at Rosek-Skubel Stadium.
Lawrence, who began the day with the expectation of winning three titles, won the high jump and triple jump and was third in the long jump.
“The high jump felt easy to me. I stopped at 6-2 (his winning jump), so there wasn’t too much stress there,” he said. “In the triple jump I felt I lived up to expectations. There were a lot of close competitors. In the long jump, I exceeded expectations.”
Drescher won the javelin with a heave of 172 feet, 2 inches — about 10 feet more than his previous best throw. His title, worth 10 team points, kept Middletown in the running for the team title. His brother, freshman Trevor, finished seventh, putting two more
points toward the team’s total.
“That throw came on my first attempt (of six), so it was somewhat nervewracking to do it so early and then watch others try to beat it),” he said. His throwing coach, Lori Canaday, “literally jumped on me in excitement when it became the winning throw.”
Dylan Drescher also brought home a fourthplace finish in the discus. Teammate Anthony Pappa finished second in the high jump with a personal best of six feet. In the 100 meters, DeShaun Bradshaw was fifth and DaJaun Lamotey was seventh.
Meyer added a fifth-place finish in the shot put to her two championships.
“It was a crazy day running back and fourth between the discus and the javelin,” she said. “To stand here now and say I won … it was a really big day.”
In the girls 100-meter hurdles, Nasharie Davis finished second.
Xavier’s 4x800 relay team — Pierre Sylvain, Owen Lally, Trevor Christie and Peter Schulten — finished second to Hall. Middletown’s Tim Johnson, Konstantin Ditc, Ben Carlon and Matt Lecky was eighth.