Mooney continues to deliver
Stonington senior wins three events, including record in 110 high hurdles, during dominating day at State Open
— Josh Mooney already won two events, breaking the State Open and overall state record in the 110-meter high hurdles and adding a victory in the 300 hurdles, when he unleashed a personal best throw of 196 feet, 4 inches in the javelin.
A crowd gathered around the javelin runway, down a path and over a small bridge from the main track at New Britain’s Willow Brook Park, heard the total and began to applaud Mooney, the humble, 6-foot-3 senior from Stonington High School.
“I couldn’t be happier for him,” Stonington coach Ben Bowne said of Mooney’s day, which featured three victories, including the javelin. “He’s not gonna, like, go on a mountaintop and scream about it. He’s gonna tell everyone else they did a great job at what they did.
“... I just see him walking by in the hall (at school) with his backpack. Half the kids at school probably don’t know who he is. Like, ‘You know, I heard there’s a pretty good track kid at our school but I don’t know who he is.’”
Mooney, headed to compete at UConn next year on a scholarship, was a full-fledged celebrity at Monday afternoon’s State Open.
He won the 110 hurdles in a meet record 13.58 seconds, also breaking the Open record in the preliminary round with a mark of 13.90.
The previous Open record belonged to Edward Williams of Sacred Heart, who ran 14.03 in 2019. The previous state record in the event was 13.77, set by Norwich Free Academy’s Myles Bradley at the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship in 2005.
Mooney then won the 300 hurdles in 37.79 seconds and the javelin with a toss of 201-2. Mooney set a personal best three times during the javelin competition and came close to the Open record of 204-5, owned by Fitch graduate Ben Latham.
Mooney said the most difficult thing on the day was knowing how the timing would work out between
the two hurdles events and the javelin. As it was, Bowne was urging him to expedite his trip over the bridge to the javelin before he missed his three preliminary throws.
“It all worked out pretty well,” Mooney said of the timing. “Winning the 110 and the 300 and I just got to chill at jav. I don’t remember the last time it worked out like that. It was kind of nice.”
Mooney won all three events at last week’s Class M state championship, as well.
Combined with teammate Ryan Gruczka’s personal best to finish in seventh place in the 800 meters, Mooney led Stonington to a fifthplace team finish with 32 points. Hall won the title with 64 and Windsor was second with 42.75.
Stonington girls’ track coach Megan Chapman, the former two-time State Open champion in the discus, said that Mooney doesn’t have the chance to practice the javelin as often as he would like, instead using something called a “Turbojav.”
“I practice with, like, these little practice javs, which if you don’t throw it right, it doesn’t look right, but if you’re pulling it through, they look freakin’ beautiful,” Mooney said. “It corrects my form pretty well so it’s kind of helpful.”
It was the first-ever triple win at a State Open for Mooney, who said he doesn’t like to take himself too seriously.
“It doesn’t take me too long to just lock in and really get in the groove,” said Mooney, who will next compete at the New England championship Saturday in Bangor, Maine. “I’m never too serious. I just go with the flow. I lock in when I need to.
“I’m just kinda having fun with it. It’s working our for me. I never like to put any stress on myself but even compared to last year it’s a lot less stressful.”