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New Canaan wins 2 events at state track
by Bob Greeney - Stamford Advocate

NEW HAVEN - New Canaan High School's girls track and field program has had a tradition of strong runners who have teamed up to form excellent relay teams in the last half dozen years. Tradition was maintained yesterday in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference State Open at Yale University's Coxe Cage. Ruth Connolly and Amy O'Callaghan were members of a pair of victorious relay teams to lead the Rams to sixth place with 23 points. East Lyme won the girls team title with 38 points. New Canaan, which won its fifth straight Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship two weeks ago, was among three FCIAC teams in the top six. Fellow FCIAC schools Danbury and Bridgeport Central tied for second place with 30 points. Suffield placed fourth with 29 points. Ledyard was fifth with 25, and Branford was a point behind New Canaan. Danbury and Staples did the FCIAC proud in the boys' meet by taking the top two places. Danbury, which won the CIAC Class L last week, cruised to the title with 48 points. Staples, the FCIAC and CIAC Class M champion, had 35 points to nip third-place Xavier by a point. New Canaan took the initial lead in the girls meet because the 4-x-800-meter relay was the opening event. The last and fast heat was a wild one with a good bit of bumping and knocking around going on while jockeying for position. O'Callaghan, Shelley Quinn and Julia Hughes ran the first three legs for the Rams. Hughes handed off the baton to Connolly for the anchor leg and Connolly passed four runners with a sizzling 2:24 leg. New Canaan won with a 10:08.30 and Bristol Central had a 10:08.91. "It was a real great feeling passing everybody. I didn't want to let the team down," said Connolly, a junior. "I was confident because I knew I had the whole team behind me. That was real, real nice with everybody cheering me on. That really helped when I was coming around the last bend and I could see everybody was jumping and screaming. That really helped me give it my last bit. "It's a mental thing," Connolly continued. "Instead of being hesitant I decided to go for it and see what I could do. I didn't want any regrets. We have a saying on the team: Leave nothing in the tank - no regrets." "We've been waiting for that. That's what she's capable of," New Canaan coach Jay Egan said. "We think she's going to be a fine 800 runner. She was real sick in the middle of the season. I was glad to see her come back and finish strong."

At the end of the meet Connolly led off the 4-x-400 that blew away the field. Connolly, Chantal Dorz, Carolyn Cross and O'Callaghan each surged away from their respective competitors and won with a 4:12.69. Middletown was second with a 4:16.49. Dorz placed fifth in the 500 (1:21.48) and Jessica Mactas was sixth in the 55-meter dash (7.48) to get the Rams their other three points. "The people who were here for us performed well," Egan said. "We're on school vacation. Unfortunately we didn't have a couple people because of that. I'm a little disappointed with that. I'm not disappointed with the people who were here. To me this is what the season's all about." Liz Cannone had an excellent day to help Greenwich tie Hall for 15th place. They both had 11 points. Cannone placed second in the 55-meter dash with a 7.26. Bridgeport Central's Patrice Gaymon won with a 7.16. Cannone later joined Cea Fong, Caroline Finger and Erika Detjen on the 4-x-200 relay that finished fifth (1:51.15). Finger, Detjen, Anna Wolfgang and Megan Reimers teamed up to place sixth in the 1600 sprint medley relay (4:31.8). "I'm really happy with our girls. That's an understatement," Greenwich coach Bill Mongovan said. "They're just getting better and better." Taylor Miller, a senior, placed fourth in the 1,000 to lead Stamford. Her 3:07.27 surpassed her previous best by four seconds. "I expected her to do better," Stamford coach Art Brown said. "She did it on experience. She's a runner who knows what she has to do." Promising sophomore Justine Kovacs placed fifth in the 1,600 with a 5:23.18 that eclipsed her previous personal-best time by five seconds. "When she started off in January she was running 5:40," said Brown. "She's one of the hardest workers I've ever had. She's going to be a big-time runner." Not one boy from the City of Stamford placed in the top six to earn a medal. Stamford senior Steve Hasak placed seventh in the 1,000 (2:43.23). Will Jordan, Adam Polite, Zack Gross and Ev Boyle of Staples teamed up to win the 4-x-400 relay (3:31.17) to help the Wreckers secure second place in the second-to-last event.