Windsor Places Second at Randy Smith Invitational Track Meet

It wasn’t the end of the world, as some predicted for Saturday, but not enough could go the Warriors’ way in the to lift Windsor to the top spot in both the girls and boys  team competitions.

Both Windsor High School teams finished second overall.

It was the first time this spring that the girls team experienced defeat. But as in all their meets this season, there were plenty of outstanding individual and relay performances along the way. The Warrior girls won both of the relays they entered, with one of them setting a meet record.

The Windsor girls, who are undefeated in regular-season dual meets, lost the lead on the meet’s last two events, the 3,200-meter run and the 4 by 400-meter relay. Glastonbury, which lost to Windsor head-to-head on April 12, won with 135 points to Windsor’s 100.

Not all of Windsor’s elite athletes were available Saturday. Although girls coach Ron Wilson said those who competed performed well, the Warriors could not compensate for the losses of key athletes. Wilson said he knew his team would be at a disadvantage.

“We expected to be Glastonbury’s closest competitor,” Wilson said. “I wasn’t planning on winning. We missed Brianna Allen.” Allen runs in two relays and in the 200 meters. Other athletes had to leave early for the .

Glastonbury, whose strength is middle and long distance events, took four of the top five places in the 3,200 to earn 28 points. Windsor had no entrants in the event that began with the Warriors holding a three-point lead.

In the final event, the 4x400 relay, one of the Warriors’ strongest events, the Tomahawks won – worth 10 points – but Windsor did not enter a team. The Warriors own the state record in the event and three of the four girls who set the mark are on this year’s team.

Allen runs the anchor leg of the 4x100, which won on Saturday despite her absence, and the first leg of the 4x400.

The 4x100 had sophomore Jocelyn Harris leading off, senior Chalsea Clark second, sophomore Courtney Kearse third and junior Janae Wilson as the anchor.

The 4x800 (senior Keniece Walker, junior Nastasya Rodriques, senior Medinah Nabadduka and sophomore Sydnee Over) set the meet record of 9:21.79, which qualified the Warriors for the national championships next month.

“If we were to remove Brianna from the 4x100, we’d only be shuffling her around,” Wilson said when asked to consider the unfathomable, to break up a national class relay. “She’d run in the 4x400 and the 100 and the 200. It looks like this [4x100] line-up could do well.”

Wilson acknowledged the 4x100 would be weaker without Allen – yet it was potent enough against strong teams in the meet – but the 100 would be stronger with her insertion there. It is something Wilson said he would evaluate and discuss with Allen when she returns to the team next week. It is a choice that would leave coaches of less formidable teams envious.

Janae Wilson almost won two individual events, winning the long jump in 16-feet-6¾ inches. She entered the triple jump finals with the best effort in the preliminaries but finished runner-up to Megan Lester of Tolland (35-3½) by 2½ inches. Sophomore Melissa Wolliston (15-11) was runner-up to Wilson in the long jump and she was fourth in the 100 hurdles in 15.93.

Clark, who had the second fastest qualifying time, won the 100 in 12.32.

Over, who has the fifth fastest time in the nation, won the 400 in 56.69, a mere 0.01 of a second off her record-setting performance in 2010.

Junior Ashley Graves was runner-up in 58.92.

Kearse won the 200 in 26.34. Nabadduka was seventh in the 800 in 2:24.77 after placing fourth in the 1,600 in 5:21.45.

Windsor Boys Track Sets Records

In the boys competition, Manchester and Windsor were close throughout the meet with the Indians ahead by small margins after most events. Manchester held off the Windsor 150 to 141.5. The Indians also defeated the Warriors 90-60 on April 19 in a dual meet in Manchester.

Hurdling star Zachary Langs entered three events Saturday for the Windsor boys and set three meet records. In fact, he broke his own record in the 110-meter high hurdles twice.

He set the high hurdles record while winning in 2010 in 14.86. He turned in a 14.80 in recording the fastest qualifying time, then won the event more than an hour later in 14.46. He ran lead-off in the victorious 4x100 relay, handing off to Alexander Smith, who was followed by Daniel Jamieson and Sherrod Peay.

Their time was 43.49; the previous record was 43.74 and was set by East Hartford in 1988. He won the 300-meter intermediate hurdles in 38.45, eclipsing the previous standard of 39.24, also set in 1988.

“He was unbelievable,” said Windsor boys coach Joe Bienasz. “He looked comfortable in the 110. In the relay, he just exploded when he got the baton. The exchanges were almost perfect. He was exactly the same with the other East Hartford runner, then he just took off.”

Langs complains of nervousness every time he competes, regardless of the circumstances. “When the gun goes off, [the nervousness] goes away. I don’t see anything; I don’t hear anything. I block out everything,” Langs said.

Other event winners for the boys were junior Greg Andrade (21-5) in the long jump and triple jump in 44-4½ , junior Tosin Edwards (48-6) in the shot put and the 4x400 of Dwight Meggie, Smith, Kymm Gordon and Aaron Cruz.