BY KEN MORSE
CITIZEN’S NEWS
The Naugatuck girls track and field team came close to accomplishing what the boys team did back in 2011 when it finished as the Class L runner-up.
The Hounds trailed Hall of West Hartford by four points with four events remaining and wound up placing third with a team total of 68.5 points.
Windsor won the Class L girls title with a total of 129 points and Hall was the runner-up with 84. Xavier of Middletown won the boys title with 125 points and Windsor was runner-up at 124.5. The Naugy boys placed 11th with a team total of 19 points.
“On the boys side, Xavier and Windsor are in a class of their own,” said Naugy coach Ralph Roper. “I figured our girls would be in a battle for the runner-up spot and they were spot on.
We left some points on the table but at the end of the day the kids turned in a good effort.”
Veterans Stadium in New Britain was a flurry of activity on May 30. Lauren Kropo led the girls effort, setting a new school record (12.0 seconds) in the 100 meters in a first place finish.
She won her second gold medal of the day in the 400 (56.66).
“Lauren had to go from the 100 to the 400 so there was little recovery time there, but she did set a new school record in the 100,” said Roper. “On the boys side Jaiden Roach set a new school record in the 400.”
The boys didn’t win any gold medals, but they did take home a silver in the 4×400 relay with Runner Anur, Ryan Deitelbaum, Zach McCasland and Jaiden Roach posting a time of 3:23.31.
The girls foursome of Kropo, Wilnye Joseph, Divine Kabongo and Lily Jason raced to a second place finish in the 4×100 relay, posting a time of 49.09. The girls had several athletes that made a difference. Jason was fourth in the triple jump (35 feet, 1.25 inches) and ninth in the 100 hurdles (16.74). Kabongo had a pair of strong finishes with a fourth place in the 300 hurdles (47.05) and a fifth place showing long jump (16-05). Joseph took a pair of fourth place finishes in the 100 meters (12.79) and in the high jump (5-0). Jordyn Grey scored some valuable points in the field events with a fourth place in the shot put (33-01.50) and a seventh place showing in the discus (92-07). Chloe Tome was third in the pole vault at 9-6.
The four-time NVL champion boys squad faced a challenging field of 30 teams and did come away with some sturdy performances. Roach raced to a fourth place finish in the 400 meters (49.18) while Eliezer Pena took eighth in the 300 hurdles (40.87). Dan Anderson placed seventh in the 110 hurdles (15.58) and just behind Pena in the 300 hurdles in ninth (40.92).
In the boys field events Bodie Sargeant finished sixth in the shot put (44-8.50) and Alec Newsom had a pair of 10th place finishes in the shot put (42-2.50) and the discus (121-2).
“We picked up a lot of points in the throwing events,” Roper said. “The top three in every event gets an automatic spot in the state open. We have a few that have double events they could qualify for like Joseph, Grey, Jason, Kabongo.”
The Greyhound girls had a couple other top 10 finishes. Briana Rubas was fifth in the javelin 102-1 and Lily Dalton finished ninth in the 1,600 at 5:21.64.
The state open was scheduled for Monday at Willow Brook Park with the New England championship to be held June 8 in New Hampshire.
