Naugy boys take fourth at state meet

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Naugatuck's Collin Reilly, right, seen anchoring the 4-by-800 relay during the NVL indoor track and field championships in January, won a gold medal in the 600 meters at the Class L state championship meet Feb. 15. –RA ARCHIVE
Naugatuck’s Collin Reilly, right, seen anchoring the 4-by-800 relay during the NVL indoor track and field championships in January, won a gold medal in the 600 meters at the Class L state championship meet Feb. 15. –RA ARCHIVE

NEW HAVEN — The Naugatuck boys indoor track team followed up their Naugatuck Valley League championship with a fourth-place showing at the Class L state championship meet last Friday at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.

Senior Collin Reilly earned the Greyhounds’ only gold medal in the 600 meters, finishing with a time of 1 minute, 25.75 seconds. Reilly also finished seventh in the same event at Tuesday’s State Open.

Naugatuck finished with 26 team points to edge out North Haven for fourth place. Darien won the Class L championship with 100 points while Windsor (74) and Fitch (52) rounded out the top three.

“We had better days,” Naugatuck coach Ralph Roper said. “I’m pleased with our performance with fourth place in Class L but we still need to work on our starts. The weather didn’t help us with not being able to practice for seven days. But most teams were in that situation. However, we were 11 seconds slower in the 4-by-800 and overall the delay affected the results of our entire team.”

The strength of Naugatuck showed in the relays as the boys 4-by-800-meter relay team of Patrick Alves, Mike Uva, Dan Schumacher and Reilly finished second in 8:41.06.

The sprint medley team of Nate Buie, Isaque Monteiro, Alves and Reilly put in a time of 3:45.24 to capture another second-place finish.

Several ‘Hounds posted competitive times against the larger schools in the Class L including Buie in the 55 dash (seventh, 6.86 seconds), Schumacher in the 1,600 (11th, 4:49.19) and 3,200 (15th, 10:48.37), Monteiro in the long jump (15th, 18 feet, 4 inches) and James SanAngelo in the shot put (14th, 40-10).

The 4-by-200 relay squad of Jason Goja, Justin Jimenez, Brian Reilly and Buie placed seventh with an effort of 1:38.65. The 4-by-400 team of Patrick Alves, Jimenez, Monteiro and Brian Reilly took ninth place.

The Naugatuck girls didn’t show up on the leaderboard but had several athletes give strong efforts in a very tough field.

“Things happen and we try and keep everything in perspective,” Roper said. “Some of our girls had to work through some things but we did show that we have some young athletes that are ready to take the next step.”

Brianna Ritter took 16th place in the shot put with a throw of 29 feet while Quiana Stanley finished 22nd at 27-6. Melissa Goja also competed in the 300.

The 4-by-400 team of Harmony Sturdivant, Goja, Hehi Cheng and Regina Roper placed 10th in 4:36.08 while the sprint medley team of Elana Gordon, Jill Orts, Cheng and Sturdivant put up a time of 4:54.77, good for 13th place.

“We had a lot of first-year seniors like (Justin) Jimenez and (Jason) Goja,” Roper said. “With what we accomplished it puts a huge target on our back coming into the spring season. I’m confident that with our work ethic and our achievements during the indoor season we will be a competitive team in the spring.”