‘Hounds run at states

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The Naugatuck girls 4x200 relay team, from left, Ariana Alvarado, Jasime Grey, Kyla Magalhaes and Rachel Garcia, set a school record (1:50.61) at the Class L state indoor track meet Saturday. –CONTRIBUTED
The Naugatuck girls 4×200 relay team, from left, Ariana Alvarado, Jasime Grey, Kyla Magalhaes and Rachel Garcia, set a school record (1:50.61) at the Class L state indoor track meet Saturday. –CONTRIBUTED

NEW HAVEN — The Naugatuck boys and girls indoor track team competed at the Class L state track met Saturday at the Floyd Little Athletic Complex.

The girls team finished 11th in a field of 23 teams. Windsor won the state title with a team total of 104 points.

The boys team finished 21st out of 25 teams in the field. Wethersfield won the state title with 71 points.

“I’m very pleased with how our athletes performed at states,” Naugatuck head coach Ralph Roper said. “We didn’t have a lot of athletes competing but the ones that did have been working real hard and the results of that effort showed.”

The Greyhounds made some noise.

Mark Zamani brought home the silver medal with a second-place finish in the 1000 meters in 2:36.57. On the girls side, Ariana Alvarado brought home the bronze medal with a third-place finish in the 55 meter dash in 7.44.

“Mark Zamani went out hard to beat his competitor. He didn’t want to get into a foot race and needed to get out early. Mark was a little tight afterwards so we shut him down for the day,” Roper said. “He is currently ranked seventh in the state open and the top six will qualify for the New England.”

Roper added, “Ariana did a great job and she is currently ranked seventh for the state open.”

The girls 4×200 relay team of Kyla Magalhaes, Alvarado, Jasmine Grey and Rachel Garcia also brought home some hardware finishing third with an effort of 1:50.61. That broke the school record that was previously set in 2009 at 1:52.24.

The relay team is ranked 12th for the state open.

“To see these athletes work so hard and then succeed the way they did is very rewarding,” Roper said.

The Greyhounds had two more top-ten finishes.

Grey leaped to a seventh place in the high jump and the foursome of Andrew Carroll, Mike Campos, Mike Zamani and Rami Ammar placed ninth in the 4×200 in 1:40.60.

Naugatuck also had a few more athletes that finished just outside the top ten. Carroll ran to a 14th in the 300 meters in 38.34, and the boys 4×400 team of Carroll, Mike Zamani, Campos and Ross Via placed 18th in 3:54.29.

The girls 1600 sprint medley relay squad of Garcia, Melissa Goja, Jill Orts and Cindy Stirk ran to 12th in 5:00.49.

The state open will be held Saturday at the Floyd Little Athletic Complex.