Danbury sprints to title
Smith leads the way for Hatters, winning 100, 200 and 400
NEW BRITAIN — At around 10:45 Thursday morning, Danbury senior Abigail Copeland ran the third leg of the team’s 4x100-meter race at the CIAC State Open in Willow Brook Park.
The team’s time of 50.05 seconds earned Danbury its first point of its later-to-be meet-winning score of 44 points.
Immediately after the event however, Copeland, Danbury’s captain, left the meet and drove the hourplus drive back to Danbury to make the school’s 2 p.m. graduation ceremony.
“That says a lot about her,” said Danbury track and field coach Rob Murray, “She knows how big and important this meet was to us.”
Copeland’s dedication to making the meet along with three-event wins from junior Alanna Smith, gave way to Danbury winning its second-straight State Open title Thursday afternoon after last winning the winning the event in 2019. Thursday’s title marks the school’s fourth State Open title. Glastonbury came in second with 38 points and Weston in third with 37 points.
“It’s really about what they preserved through this year,” Murray said. “We haven’t been full-time in person at all. These girls, it was their families that helped them get back to practice, they helped each other with rides, that’s first and foremost. They were so committed to their goals; they work for each other. … Those girls and the 42 girls that were on our roster they all pulled themselves together. They did an amazing thing.”
THREE STATE TITLES, FIRST TIME IN DECADE
Smith scored 30 of the Hatters’ 44 points by winning the 100-, 200- and
400-meter races — the first time someone has won all three events since Precious Holmes of Hillhouse in
2011.
“I’m so excited and so proud. It really makes me feel like all my practicing and training has really paid of,” Smith said.
After winning the 100 in a personal best of 12.03 seconds, Smith had about six minutes of rest before jumping in the 400. Despite a quick moment bent over on the grass throwing up her nerves — something she said she does often between races but always makes her feel better — she won the 400 in 56.78.
“I’m so excited especially because my freshman year when I won the 400 I was so excited like it was like the best feeling ever so to come out here and to win two and maybe even three after I do the 200, I’m super excited,” Smith said after winning the 100 and 400 meter dashes.
Smith finished her day making history becoming the first athlete since 2011 to win all three of the sprinting events with her personal best of 24.49 in the 200.
“I really wanted to win all three really bad, so I was just really pushing myself in my races,” she said. “I just know that I want to win states and hopefully next year when there is New Englands and bigger meets like that, I’ll be able to win those meets. It’s just that track is everything to me.”
A WINNING CONFIDENCE
Two years ago at her first State Open as a freshman, Joel Barlow’s Mariella Schweitzer tripped on the first hurdle of the 100 hurdles and threw off her pace for qualifying for the finals. The fall shattered her confidence. That is until she got her redemption on Thursday.
Once the junior stepped through the starting line she knew could win and she did, in a personal best of 14.18 seconds.
“I was obviously feeling a little nervous like everyone usually does, but I think once I got on the starting line and took off, all that sort of went away and my mind was on the finish line and winning,” she said. “The main reason I won this race was confidence.”
Schweitzer took the extra boost of winning her first State Open title into the 300-meter hurdles to win that event in a meet-record tying time of 43.18.
“I used to be really nervous going into the starting line and doubt myself a lot. But these past couple weeks, I’ve really been working on that and I think my confidence is better than it’s ever been,” said Schweitzer, who will compete at nationals in Oregon later this month. “All the competition is making me feel more pumped up and more amped and ready to compete. … This is probably the best track day I’ve probably ever had in my life. I’ve definitely never been more confident or happy with my races.”
THE KICKSTER HULK
With 250 meters left in the 1,600, Simsbury’s Olivia Birney pushed past the event’s leader Mari Noble of Greenwich to sprint through the final meters and win the race in 4 minutes and 50.96 seconds, winning her first ever State Open title. The win solidified an impressive season for Birney in the event after beginning the season with a previous personal best of 5:25.
“I tell myself, ‘You can do it, you got it, you know you have a really strong kick, these girls are so fast they push you so hard, but you just gotta tough it out and do it,’ ” Birney said of what runs through her mind before she begins to kick. She refers to this voice as the ‘Hulk’ inside her. “And I’m so happy I did. I’m so happy to have been pushed by such great racers. …. Going into this race, I did not know what was going to happen and that’s what’s super fun for me. Not knowing and finding success. It was a lot of fun.”
An hour or so later, Birney again used her quick kick to beat out Weston’s Julia Rosenburg in the final 100 meters of the 800 to win her second State Open title in 2:11.82.
“I left it all out on the track today and that’s really the reason I’m so happy,” she said of winning her second title. “I’m more proud of how I was able to push at the end in both races and to really dig deep and find stuff that I knew I’ve had in me, but you need competition to bring that out. … I don’t just love winning; I love the fight to win.”
ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
Gastonbury opened Thursday’s meet by winning the 4x800-meter relay in 9 minutes and 20.6 seconds. Sheehan won the 4x100meter relay in 48.68, while Newtown closed the meet winning the 4x400 in
3:55.99.
“It’s absolutely insane,” said Sheehan senior Allison Villano. “Just to be able to walk into a place and know that everybody is kinda chasing you but that adrenaline rush of knowing that every time you gotta run your best and we did that today.”
CLOSE POLE VAULT FINISH
Both Mallory Malz from Glastonbury and Ellison Weiner from Weston finished the pole vault at 11-00, however since it only took Malz two attempts to reach the height over Weiner’s three, Malz was awarded the state title.
THROWS, JUMPS AND OTHER WINS
Chloe Scrimgeour won the
3,200 for Conard in 10:21.61, missing the meet record by a little more than a second.
In the throw events, it was Hillhouse’s Leah Moore who won both the shot put (41 feet and 2.5 inches) and discus
(131 feet), while Weston’s Shea Greene won the javelin throw in 154 feet, breaking the previous eight-year-old state record.
Kedarjah Lewis from Haddam-Killingworth won the long jump title with a jump of 19-01.00. The triple jump title was won by Nia Christie of St. Joseph in
37-11.50, while New Milford’s Anichka Malachi came in second with 3610.25. Nonnewaug’s Courtney Rowland won the high jump in 5-06.00.