Naugy earns top 10 finishes at Class L meet

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NEW HAVEN — The Naugatuck boys and girls indoor tracks team recorded four top-ten finishes Feb. 11 at the Class L state championship meet at the Floyd Little Athletic Complex in New Haven.

The Greyhounds didn’t have the depth of the top competitors as the boys and girls finished 23rd and 22nd, respectively. Windsor captured the girls championship with 59 points and New Milford finished as runner-up with 36 team points. The Hall boys won the last event, the 4×400, by four-tenths of a second to win the championship with 50 team points ahead of runner-up Middletown with 48 points.

“We did as well as expected,” Naugatuck assistant coach Ralph Roper III said. “We saw a lot of personal growth this season and a lot of our younger athletes made good progress. We are hoping to continue that growth during the spring outdoor season.”

Naugatuck junior Makayla Teixeira ran a near personal best in the 55 hurdles placing sixth and securing a medal with an effort of 9.59. That was the only top ten finish for the girls team.

The 4×200 relay team of senior Renell Clarence and sophomores Alyssa Zarrella, Jade Lima and Julia Dudek ran to 17th place with an impressive time of 2:00.60, just three seconds out of the top ten.

Clarence also finished 25th in the 300 meters (46.77). Senior Erin Schofield threw the shot put 27 feet, 10 inches to earn 23rd.

“We didn’t have the amount of athletes as we have had in the past,” Naugatuck assistant coach Bill Hanley said. “But that didn’t stop the athletes we had from putting in the hard work and seeing the results from that hard work.”

Hanley spoke particularly about junior Ross Via who entered the 1000 meters seeded 34th out of 35 runners and then finished eighth with an effort of 2:50.14.

Aren Seeger also had a noteworthy day on the track. The junior raced to seventh in the 300 meters at 37.06.

The best effort of the day belonged to the 4×400 team of senior Rami Ammar, Seeger and sophomores Nick Airall and Derek Sampaio. The team finished fifth with a time of 3:40.24.

The 4×200 team of Ammar, Airall, Sampaio and senior Xavier Lewis ran to 12th in 1:38.73. Sophomore Ben Healy placed 12th in the high jump at 5 feet, 6 inches. Senior Bailey Mortensen was 14th in the long jump at 19 feet, 2.75 inches, and senior Tyler Blair finished 20th in the shot put at 39 feet, 1 inch.