Local track teams dominate NVL meet

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NEW HAVEN — The Naugatuck and Woodland girls went 1-2, and the boys did the same, in reverse order, as the local track and field teams ruled the Naugatuck Valley League indoor championships Tuesday at Hillhouse High School.

The Garnet and Grey ladies racked up 132.5 points to secure their fourth consecutive league title, while the Hawks gents’ 114.5 earned them the first in school history.

Naugatuck's Rosa Moriello pulled off another NVL triple, winning the 1,000-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter races.
Naugatuck's Rosa Moriello pulled off another NVL triple, winning the 1,000-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter races.

A day before she signed her national letter of intent to run at Boston University, Naugy’s Rosa Moriello pulled off yet another triple at an NVL championship meet, winning the 1,000-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter races. The senior claimed the indoor two-mile for the fourth straight year, the mile for the third and the 1,000 for the second, repeating her trifecta from 2009. She also won three events at last year’s outdoor meet.

Other event champions included the Naugy girls’ four-by-800 meter relay team, Woodland’s Alyssa Marti in the 55-meter hurdles, Woodland’s Tyler Murphy in the 1,000, the Hounds’ Tori Pisco in the 600, the Naugatuck girls’ and Woodland boys’ 1,600-meter sprint medley squads, the Hawks’ Brandon Fowler in the 300, the NHS girls’ and WRHS boys’ four-by-400 relays, the Hawks’ boys four-by-200 relay, Woodland’s Brittany Battis in the pole vault and Naugy’s Sarah Konops and Amanze Williams in the long jump.

The borough ladies seized command of the meet by winning the first five non-sprinting events. Becky Renzoni, Shelby Hale, Natalia Carvalho and Katelyn Deptula dominated the four-by-800, winning by 19 seconds, in 10:32.76.

Then came the 1,000, in which Moriello was seeded a misleading sixth.

“I haven’t run the 1,000 at all this year,” she explained before the race.

Lack of familiarity didn’t stop her from scorching the oval in 3:03.43, breaking by more than four seconds the NVL record held by former Naugy great Jenn Rosenblatt. The future Terrier also lowered the league’s two-mile record by more than three seconds, with a time of 11:19.82. Her mile time of 5:15.72 was just .62 of a second off the league mark.

Pisco broke her own league 600 record, in 1:40.65, winning the event for the second time in her career. She finished first in 2008 and appeared to repeat last year but was disqualified for interference.

Some of the tightest races of the evening involved Woodland boys. Fowler and Chris Savvidou were the class of the 300 field, taking first and second, in 36.85 and 37.07, respectively. Earlier, Savvidou was edged in the 600 by Holy Cross’ Patsy Casalino, whose winning time of 1:29.47 was only .21 of a second faster than the Black and Gold senior’s. Fowler finished second in the 55 hurdles, in 8.11 seconds, .07 off the pace of Wilby’s Devon Pruden.

As usual, it was the Woodland boys’ depth that made them contenders—they won three of four relay events—but it was their ability to complement those collective efforts with individual ones that propelled them to victory.

For the girls, the key was consistency: Though they won only two events, they placed among the top three in nine.

Williams’ long jump victory highlighted the Naugatuck boys’ meet. The tall junior outleapt top-seeded Dylan Kruppa of Torrington by a quarter of an inch, clearing 20 feet, 3 ¼ inches.