NAUGATUCK — The Woodland-Naugatuck boys rematch on the track didn’t turn out to be a photo finish like the last few times these teams put it all on the line at the league’s indoor championships.
The Hawks simply dominated from start to finish, defeating Naugatuck by a wide margin, 97.5-52.5, and easily disposing of Crosby, 111-39, at Naugatuck on Tuesday.
It seems the last few years the neighboring rivalry has come down to the final event. But the Greyhounds (3-2) were just no match for the Hawks (7-0) as Woodland won 10 of the 18 events and Naugatuck garnered just four first-place finishes.
“We always circle that date on the calendar,” Woodland boys coach Tim Shea said, referring to the scheduled meet with Naugatuck. “Win or lose, we use it as a measuring stick to see where we are. Coach [Ralph] Roper and coach [Bill] Hanley do such a great job with that program. You need to come in here and leave it all out on the track if you expect to come out of here with a victory.”
Woodland got it started by taking all three relay events to open up a significant lead over Naugatuck and Crosby.
The 4-by-800 team of Nick Hebert, Marc Beaulieu, Adam Baz and Eric Dietz raced to victory in a time of 8:26.52. The 4-by-400 squad of Nick LaPerriere, Beaulieu, Tim Madormo and Dietz ran to a first place finish in a time of 3:36.
The Hawks completed the relay sweep with the 4-by-100 foursome of Madormo, LaPerriere, Jon Alarcon and Mike Lang sprinting past the field in a winning effort of 44.58 seconds.
By the time Naugatuck put up its first victory with Nick Moriello winning the 1,600 in a time of 4:50.83, the Greyhounds trailed Woodland, 29-8.
Madormo was a double winner for the Hawks taking the 110 hurdles before winning the 300 hurdles with a blistering pace of 41.59.
Naugatuck fought back with Muad Hrezi recording a pair of victories in the 800 (2:06.45) and the 3,200 (10:51.42).
It did little to slow down the Hawks, who had built a comfortable, 55-27 advantage at that point. If there was any notion of a late Naugatuck rally that was quickly laid to rest during the next two sprints.
Alarcon raced to victory in the 200, crossing the finish line in 23.07 seconds, to up the Hawks’ margin. Dietz staged a late flurry to overtake his competition in a down-to-the-wire finish to win the 400 in 51.97 seconds.
“I was trailing going down the stretch but I just dug it out all the way from start to finish,” Dietz said. “This meet has been on our mind for a long time. We wanted to come out here and dominate. We trained really hard the last few days getting ready for this meet.”
The Greyhounds’ Colton Wagner took first place in the pole vault with an effort of 10-6, but that was only the fourth and final win of the day for Naugatuck.
Woodland closed out the meet with victories in all three throwing events. Levi Fancher won the shot put with a heave of 41 feet. Scott Lang outdistanced the field in the javelin with a winning toss of 168-2 inches and Dave Alves won the discus with a throw of 109-11.
“Just the atmosphere alone makes this such a fun meet to watch and be a part of,” Shea said. “Ultimately these types of meets are what get you ready for the championship meets at the end of the season.”
See more photos here.
