Suffield boys place 2nd; meet record for Berlin’s Mroczkowski
NEW HAVEN — The Suffield High boys track and field team wanted to make a statement at the Class M indoor championship at the Floyd Little Athletic Center on Saturday. The Wildcats wanted to prove that they were no joke heading into next week’s State Open.
What a statement they made.
In the 4x800-meter relay, the team of senior Cam Miller, junior Jared Sharp, senior Kyle Englander and junior Nick Sinofsky ran a time of 8 minutes, 5.73 seconds - 14 seconds faster than their seeded time - and broke a 23-year-old meet record by 12 seconds.
“I think we wanted to make a statement,” Englander said. “This is the beginning of the CIAC championship meets, and next week is the Open. That’s the bigger fish that we’re focused on. We wanted to go in there with a good seed time, and get the rest of the state focused on us as legitimate competition for the state open title.”
In addition to the relay, Suffield won two more individual events and took second in two others to score 56 points, and finish runner-up to defending champions Hillhouse, which scored 87 points. Weston was third, and other area schools in the top 10 were Tolland (fifth) and Ellington (tied for eighth).
Sharp took the momentum from the relay win into the 600 meters. He trailed Hillhouse’s Talib McBride by just footsteps for the first two laps, then was able to kick it into a second gear with just 55 meters remaining.
He pushed pack McBride for the win, racing a time of 1:24.73. Like the relay, he beat his seeded time, and picked up 10 more points for the Wildcats.
“All it was was heavenly father giving me the strength, and my coach, he tells me exactly what I need to do,” Sharp said. “’Run smart, and give it all I have.’”
In the 1,600, Sinofsky didn’t need to make up any ground like Sharp did. When the starting gun went off, he jumped ahead to lead the pack. He held it for each of the eight laps and won with a time of 4:29.49.
Englander, who finished second to Tolland’s Alec Sauter in the 3,200, took second to Sinofsky with a time of 4:29.81.
“I knew I had the mile capabilities, I knew I was strong in the mile,” said Sinofsky. “This was my event to win. I figured I’d just go out and take it. I’ve beaten all of these guys before. A couple of these guys are in my conference, a couple from indoor meets. I knew from the gun, no one would be able to beat me.”
The Wildcats have a week to prepare for the Open. The 4x800 team, which rarely ran together this season, ran one of the state’s top times on Saturday. Sinofksy has the confidence in the mile, while Sharp’s kick is hard to beat in the 600.
“You know, we’re a Class M team,” Sinofksy said. “We’re not supposed to be the biggest, we’re not supposed to be the best, we’re not supposed to beat L and LL.
“But we knew if we came in here today, we ran well, we beat some good teams, ran some good times, we’d at least just beat some people. It gives us great confidence going into Open.”
Berlin’s Mroczkowski sets meet record in high jump
Patricia Mroczkowski could have stopped jumping.
When she cleared the bar in the high jump at 5 feet 6, she set the top mark on the day. Tolland’s Tianna St. Louis tapped out after 5-4. So the win belonged to Mroczkowski, and 10 points were headed Berlin’s way. But her coach pushed her to keep jumping. Her current mark tied her with Woodstock’s Janel Kozolowski for the meet record, set back in 2000.
“After I cleared 5-6, my coach goes, ‘Go to 5-6 and a quarter and secure that,’” she said. “He said that I should mark my spot, and leave my name.”
Mroczkowski, a senior, cleared the bar, and broke a 19-year-old record in the process with a jump of 5-6.25. Her win helped the Redcoats, who finished fifth with 25 points. Hillhouse won the team title with 76 points, followed by Weston and Sheehan. Ellington was sixth behind Berlin. She tapped out after failing to clear 5-8. She says she’s done so in practice before, and will look to do so at the state open next weekend, where she’ll be among the top seeds in the high jump.
“I’m definitely more confident that I can compete and maybe win,” she said. “I don’t want to sound too cocky.”