By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp

RESULTS

Greenwich boys and girls were both FCIAC runners-up last year and both teams defeated the defending champions to bring the titles back home on Thursday night at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven. 

Boys Championship Highlights

Greenwich the FCIAC, Class LL and State Open champions in cross country are two-thirds of their way to an FCIAC triple crown for the 2025-26 school year. Like in cross country, the Cardinal boys used their depth and scored in 13 of 15 events to defeat defending champion Danbury by a score of 112 to 66 with Ridgefield finishing 3rd with 42.5 points.

The Greenwich boys won four events but scored in all but two and had multiple scorers in four. The Cardinals started off the day on top taking the first two relays. They took the lead from Danbury on the third leg to win the 4x200m. The team of Jack Hannafin, David Boside, Daniel Silver and Alexander Yu just missed their own meet record by .01 seconds, finishing in 1:32.35. In the next event they held off a hard charging Brien McMahon team to win the 4x800m relay. Michael Yardis, Oliver Eaton, Benjamin Hayes and Ryan Newcomb combined to run 8:16.45, the 2nd fastest time in CT this year. 

Newcomb, the FCIAC cross country champion showed off his speed and won the 600m in 1:24.79 and then finished off his night helping his team take 3rd in the 4x400m. He is currently the 6th ranked boy in the 600m, 1000m, 1600m and 3200m events which should give coaches plenty of choices for him in the upcoming Class LL championships.

While Greenwich earned most of their points on the track, they managed to have a considerable representation in the field from senior Jacob Mobley. The senior scored a single point last year but took advantage of four seniors graduating and improved his PR from 44 feet last year to win the shot put with a toss of 51-0.5 on Thursday which moves him up to #6 in CT.

Rysaiah Saunders continued his outstanding season in the 55m hurdles and lowered the meet record to 7.45 to easily win by over half of a second. The senior was only 6th last year at FCIAC and didn’t break 8 seconds, but last Saturday he lowered his own FCIAC record to 7.35 to move him to 14th in the US.  

Ridgefield’s Kieran Boyle turned the tables on long time rival Machai Henry of Danbury in the 55m. He moved up from 2nd last year to win the finals in 6.45 with Henry running a season best of 6.51. The Tigers, normally known for their distance prowess, also came away with a win in the 300m. Fellow senior William Gallaway held off three Greenwich runners who took 2nd through 4th and set a PR of 35.91 to claim the title. 

Aidan Nelson, fresh off his 4:14 mile against college runners in at Boston University this past weekend, is carrying the mantle for the Ridgefield distance team this year. He dropped down in distance to easily win the 1000m in a time of 2:36.20. 

New Canaan’s Ryan Monohan wasn’t a factor as last year’s FCIAC championships finishing outside the top dozen runners in both the 1000m and 1600m events. But what a difference a year makes. The senior faced a tough challenge from Darien’s Andrew Sharron who stuck with him like glue until the Ram threw in a sub 30-second last lap and finished in a state leading 1600m time of 4:20.73 with Sharron only sixth tenths behind. Monohan returned to run the fastest split of the evening in the 4x400m running his leg in 52.09 to help his team to a 4th place finish. 

Hudson Schunk ran his season best last year but didn’t score at FCIACs. Like Monohon, the Fairfield Warde senior has improved greatly in a year and led two of his teammates Edward Kushel and Max Mocarski to a 1-3-4 finish in the 3200m. Schunk was the top CT finisher at the Yale Invitational 3k, won Thursday in a new PR of 9:35.47.

Westhill’s Nate Elsner won the FCIAC pole vault as a sophomore but was relegated to a 5th place finish last year. The senior redeemed himself winning with a new indoor PR of 14-0 to become the 4th CT boy over the height this season. 

After a third place finish in the 55m with a PR of 6.51 and leading off the winning SMR team (3:45.45), Danbury’s Tobeas Kelly mined individual gold in the long jump. The senior had his second meet in a row over 22 feet and claimed the victory after only taking two jumps with his best of 22-3.25 coming on his 4th jump. 

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Girls Championship Highlights

The Lady Cardinals won with a total team effort. With around a dozen girls contributing, they swept all four relays and took two individual events, scoring in 11 of 15 events to accumulate 116 points. Defending champions New Canaan held off Fairfield Ludlowe to take the runner-up trophy by a score of 65 to 55. 

Gemma Hardwick and Eliana Daplyn showed they were made of iron pulling off tough triples to each win three gold medals. Hardwick anchored the 4x800m with a 2:24 split and helped her team run 9:46.19, the state’s #2 time this year. She had about a 70 minute break and then ran the 600m in 1:38.45, a top six time in CT. She then finished off her evening handing off with a big lead in the 4x400m that led wire to wire finishing in a time of 4:09.64.

Daplyn was equally up to the challenge and pulled off another tough triple. She went right to the front of the 1000m and never looked back, winning in 2:58.40. After a 90 minute break she returned to run a 2:20.76 in the 800m anchor leg to help her team dominate the 1600m SMR. She then joined Hardwick to lead their team to another victory in the 4x400m.

Senior Nina Silver, sophomores Ella and Riley Barber, daughters of NY Giants great Tiki Barber and freshman Chloe Culver combined to run 1:45.15 to win the 4x200m relay which is the 2nd fastest CT time on a flat track this season and breaks Danbury’s 10-year old meet record. It is also within a half second of their 13-year old school record set at New Englands in 2013. 

Brien McMahon’s Gabriella Rivera was a double gold medalist taking the 55m hurdles in 8.31, the state’s 2nd fastest time and the 300m in 41.29, the state’s 6th ranked performance. She joined her teammate Ann Sara Luma to finish 3rd in the 4x200m. Luma went on to take the 55m in 7.20, the state’s 4th fastest time in the event and also took 2nd in the 300m in another PR of 41.53 to move up to 4th in Class LL.

The FCIAC has always been known as a tough conference for distance runners. Fairfield Warde’s Alexandra Morgan let Greenwich’s Sophie Passalacqua, the State Open runner-up in cross country, take it out the first two laps but then took over the race from there and held off a strong challenge over the last lap. The recent Yale Invitational winner, claimed the gold in a time of 5:07.38 with the Cardinal taking 2nd in 5:08.43. Staples’ Sarah Bogdan was 3rd that race and returned to face Passalacqua once again in the 3200m to claim victory in 10:58.03 with the Greenwich sophomore taking her second silver. 

Championships are when athletes are supposed to step up and they certainly did in the shot put where the top four girls all set significant PRs. They were led by Fairfield Ludlowe’s Lexi Lockwood who broke 40 feet for the first time on her 2nd and 4th throws to take over the top ranking in the state and a new school record with her mark of 40-6.75. Theresa Knuth of Greenwich also shined and moved up to CT #3 with her PR of 39-9.0 on her final throw. 

Fairfield Ludlowe swept the top three spots in the high jump led by Frieda Patzner who was the only girl to clear 5 feet.

Wilton’s Melinda Pettit has already cleared 10-6 four times this season but finally broke the 11 foot barrier and became the 4th CT girl to clear that height in the pole vault this winter. 

There are now 14 girls over 17 feet in the long jump in CT and three of them did it one meet. Staples’ Taylor Black has been consistently over the mark and the first year senior jumper came away with her first conference title with a near PR of 17-5.5. Milana Hutchins of New Canaan cracked the barrier with a leap of 17-00.25 and Ridgefield’s Sara Hill was only a quarter inch behind. 

It’s not too early to think about your plans for summer training that could include attending the Foss Running Camp!