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Greenwich girls track team makes big strides
by Scott McCaffery - Greenwich Time

Greenwich High School junior Liz Cannone has always had that one barrier to cross to reach the top of the mountain. For Cannone, that mountain has been Bridgeport Central's Patrice Gaymon. Earlier this month, Cannone nearly climbed Mount Gaymon, falling short at the New England High School Track and Field Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, Mass. Cannone's time of 7.23 seconds in the 55-meter dash was the best of her career, falling just 2 1/100 short of Gaymon's time of 7.21 seconds. "That's the closest I've ever been to her," Cannone said. "It's a lot of hard work, but I give a lot of credit to Patrice. I'm always trying to catch her and get closer to her." The accolades just keep building for the Greenwich track and field program. Over the past 12 years of the New England meet, Greenwich athletes have won medals in six of them, with former Cardinals standout Nicole Paul earning medals in 1993-96. Cannone's second-place finish gave her medals in each of the past two New England meets. Cannone's impressive showing at the New Englands was just the icing on the cake to an outstanding season. Cannone has also won silver medals at the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship, state Class L finals and State Open championships, completing a winter to be remembered. The 4X200 relay team of Cea Fong, Carolyn Finger, Erika Detjen and Cannone also made GHS history at the New England meet. Their time of 1:49.59 clipped the previous Cardinals record of 1:50.08 set in 1996 by Christina Freyre, Rachel Witt, Kim Hartshorne and Paul. Greenwich coach Bill Mongovan said he was amazed by the record-breaking performance and extremely pleased with his team's effort. "Each season we get progressively better after counties, and this year was no exception," Mongovan said. "Each meet has seen the relay and Liz just get better and better."

Following New Englands the Cardinals traveled to the National Scholastic Indoor Championship at the 168th Armory in New York City. Cannone, Detjen and Anna Wolfgang were joined by teammate Megan Reimers for the sprint medley relay, which is run in increments of 200, 200, 400 and 800 meters. The Cardinals broke another record, finishing with a time of 4:21.20, bettering the mark of 4:22.80 set in 1997. Mongovan felt that Cannone (25.4), Detjen (26.5), Wolfgang (63.4) and Reimers (2:25.60) all ran well. "Every single one of those girls have improved," Mongovan said. The time was good enough for 21st out of 32 teams, proving just how competitive the nationals are. Detjen felt cohesion was a major factor in breaking the school record. "It was really exciting because at the beginning of the season we couldn't put all of the pieces together," Detjen said. "Now we have really good teamwork with good handoffs." Cannone felt that the dedication her team has shown has paid off. "We've worked really hard this season," she said. "There have been a lot of personal best (times) to go along with great team spirit. We look forward to the spring and hopefully we can repeat the stuff we did in the indoor season." For Cannone, looking ahead to the spring means future battles with Gaymon. "It's really a positive thing because we both push each other so much," she said. Perhaps this time around Cannone will catch her rival. "I know she's been working really hard, working out a lot," Detjen said. "She's really doing amazing."