Noteworthy Girls Track Performances; Tournament Play

The Windsor girls track team completed its quest for a back-to-back outdoor championships at the Thursday in Middletown. The Warriors also won the indoor championships in Februrary. Only a State Open championship has eluded them.

Hillhouse and Danbury seem the principle opponents in the way this time.

Windsor will have only one top seed Monday at the Open. The team of Sydnee Over, Brianna Allen, Nastasya Rodrigues and Ashley Graves are the fastest qualifiers in the 4x400 relay but the Warriors can expect to pick up points throughout the sprints and middle distance races.

Whether this is enough to overcome Hillhouse junior Precious Holmes remains to be seen.

TRACK CHAMPS

Manchester junior Arianna Rivera won the 300 meter hurdles in the Class LL meet in a time of 46.59.

Rockville junior Kelly Walker won the 300 hurdles at the Class MM meet in 46.63 while E.O. Smith's 4x800 relay team of Maggie Sundberg, Carlie Shroyer, Mary O'Neil and Shannon Bailey won in 9:52.48.

At the Class M meet, Tolland, behind Kristin Carr, Carly Dedominicis, Chelsea Domian and Hannah Fay, won the 4x400 in 4:01.96. The Eagles also won the 4x800 relay in 9:48.92. Carr was joined by Erin Connelly, Allison Gallo and Emily Howard. Sophomore Megan Lester also won the javelin with a throw of 121-09.

Northwest Catholic-West Hartford sophomore Sarah Gillespie, who lives in Manchester, won the 800 and 1,600 meter runs at the Class S meet. Gillespie set a meet record in the 800 with a time of 2:12.99 beating the old mark, set by Vanessa Thompson of St. Mary's-New Haven in 1982. Gillespie followed that by setting a meet record in the 1,600, finishing in 4:54.28, which beat the previous record of 5:05.64, set in 2005 by Kelly Sorrell of Lyman Memorial-Lebanon.

THE TOURNAMENTS

East Catholic finally allowed a run – the fist since April - but the Eagles are one of two area teams still playing softball.

The Eagles reached the Class L semifinals with victories over Haddam-Killingworth, Holy Cross-Waterbury and Griswold.

East Catholic (19-4) will meet Seymour (21-1) Monday in West Haven. The two sides have reached the semifinals through opposite means.

East Catholic has outscored teams 6-1. Seymour has won its two games by a combined 18-7.

Seymour has not seen a pitcher like Allyson Fournier in the tournament and East Catholic has shown an increasing ability to win tight games. The Eagles needed extra innings against Holy Cross and managed only one scratch run against Griswold. But Kelly Robichaud, Julie Maloney, Shannon Klock, Laura Skloy and company know if they can get something on the board, Fournier will do the rest.

Somers (19-4) has outscored opponents 12-3 in the Class S tournament and will meet top-seeded Terryville Tuesday in West Haven. Terryville reached the semifinals with a 4-1 victory over East Granby and an 8-2 win over Tourtellotte-Thompson. Somers has relied on the same formula it has used all season. The Spartans get a burst of offense, like the three-run first inning the Spartans put together against Morgan-Clinton, a rally made possible by Julie Folger and Danielle Chokas, or the late rally against Notre Dame-Fairfield keyed by Samantha Morton. Then Somers leans on the power pitching from JoJo Meunier.

East Catholic and Somers are the only local teams still playing but others had solid showings in the tournaments. Rockville, which loses only senior Brianna Levick, reached the quarterfinals of the Class L tournament before losing to Bacon Academy-Colchester.

Tolland also reached the quarterfinals with a surprising run that ended with a 3-2 loss to Rocky Hill. The wonderful play of Sammie Olson, Katie Akerly and Jessica Olson propelled the No. 19 seed to the doorstep of West Haven.

Sometimes a successful tournament is measured simply by expectations. East Windsor entered the tournament 9-11 but won its first round game 16-6 and battled Stafford to the end in a 2-1 loss in the Class S tournament. Seniors Briana Matteson, Kayla Herson, LaShonda Hilson, Kelly Lemay and Alicia Meyers can take pride in what they accomplished.

Ellington's run in Class S was stopped by nemesis Granby and it will take awhile to understand we don't get to watch Morgan McPartland pitch again...In girls lacrosse, Suffield (13-3) will meet Granby on Monday. Granby is one of the few teams to slow the Wildcats this season. The teams split, Suffield winning the first meeting 7-4 before dropping the second meeting 8-7. Granby defeated Sacred Heart Academy 16-11 to reach the second round. The question will be whether Molly Clark and her teammates are hindered by the layoff.

The girls tennis State Open begins today and runs through Wednesday. E.O. Smith's Daphne Myers and Suffield's Victoria Ho are among the singles players who earned first round byes. Among the most interesting first round matches are Ellington's Hannah Riley against Hall-West Hartford's Rachel Brody and Enfield's Catherine Oliver match with Fermi's Mackenzie Demur. The E.O. Smith doubles team of Kaylyn Rogers and Erica Tremko are seeded No. 16 in the doubles tournament.