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05/22/2015 12:00 AMThe Branford track program traveled to Amity to compete in the SCC West Sectional Championship on May 18 and both the boys and girls turned in respectable showings by placing in the upper half of their respective competitions. The Hornets’ girls’ squad scored 75.50 points to finish fourth out 10 teams with Mercy winning the meet. The boys took fifth in their 10-team field by scoring 60.50 and Hamden was the champion on that side.
There were a handful of runner-up performances for both squads and one athlete that grabbed the gold in Keira Integlia, who took first place in the javelin. Integlia, a sophomore, let it fly with a throw of 97 feet-7 inches on the last of her six attempts, which was good enough to best runner-up Kim Ullrich of Hamden and her 95-7. Integlia also competed in the discus and shot put and set a personal record of 27-7 in the latter event. Although she didn’t PR in the javelin, Keira was still thrilled about her first postseason victory, according to Head Coach Kevin Connell.
“I was going back and forth to three different events and so I didn’t get to see the finals of the javelin, but when I came back, Keira had a big smile on her face. I asked her how she did and she said she won. That was really big. It was one of the big performances of the day,” said Connell. “Keira was only doing the javelin last year and we wanted her to pick up one or two other events this season and she’s done that. She’s a very good athlete and I’m excited that she had such a good performance.”
The boys didn’t pick up any victories at sectionals, although Rich Biondi’s club still put together a number of notable showings, including a second-place finish by senior Luke Arsenault in the 800-meter run with his mark of 2:01.51. Arsenault also ran on the runner-up 4x800 relay with senior captains Nathan D’Amico, Ryan Connell, and Alec Janis. That quartet has prevailed at several postseason meets, including both of last year’s West Sectional championships; the SCC and state meets in the spring of 2014; as well as the sectional, SCC, and state competitions in the recent indoor season. Even though they came up two-and-a-half seconds shy of winning this time, the group still ran 8:10.09, which was their best mark of the season and a faster time than in any of their postseason triumphs.
“I was happy with that fact that they ran the best performance they ever have as a group. Their goal is to defend their class title from last year and break the school record and they’re less than two seconds from it,” Coach Biondi said. “Luke has always been a good distance runner, but he’s gotten away from the 3,200 to focus more on the mid-distance events and is really in a nice groove.”
Also placing second for the Branford boys was sophomore David Donnelly, who threw 147-7 in the javelin. Donnelly was additionally seventh in the 400-meter dash behind a time of 52.44 seconds and ran on the seventh-place 4x400 relay (3:38.77) with D’Amico, junior Marshall Borrus, and Janis.
“I coached David on the middle school cross country team and he’s the brother one of the greatest track athletes ever at Branford, Brian Vinci, so I’m not surprised he ran as well as he did in the 400 and 4x4. But I was surprised with the javelin because he had never thrown the javelin before this year,” Biondi said. “David has made such a huge jump and that’s a testament to him. He’s a good kid with natural ability and the sky’s the limit for him in the javelin as he gets the technique down more.”
The Hornets’ girls’ also saw some runner-up finishes at the sectionals. Their 4x800 relay of sophomore Courtney Cosgrove, junior Anneliese Troidle, senior Jess Lohret, and junior Cyrene Nicholas posted a season-best time of 10:12.81 to take second. Coach Connell said that Nicholas ran a superb anchor leg to move the unit up a couple of spots. Nicholas additionally raced to third place in the 800 at 2:25.87 and was sixth in the 3,200 (12:27.39). Jess Lohret, who captains Branford with fellow seniors Alyssa Case and Zoe Smiarowski, also ran the 3,200 and notched a time of 11:51.19 to take third, which marked a 19-second improvement from her previous personal best. Meanwhile, Case, who won the pole vault at both sectional meets last year and then at states in the winter, reached a height of 9-6 in the event this time. That was tied for the best mark, although Case ultimately finished second on a tiebreaker that was based on the amount of misses when the bar was at a lower height.
Everyone who placed in the top eight scored points for their team at sectionals and Branford had several other athletes do so. Someone who did that in multiple events was junior Issy Bysiewicz, who finished third in the 300 hurdles (49.73), was third in the long jump with a PR of 15-7.75, and took fifth in the 100 hurdles (16.53). Also, Taylor Brown found fourth in the pole vault (7-6) with fellow freshman Bridget Wirtz in fifth (7-6); junior Etta Hanlon was fifth in the long jump (15-2) and eighth in the triple jump (31-0); Cosgrove placed seventh in the 3,200 at 12:32.91; and the 4x100 relay of sophomore Amanda Acquarulo, senior Brittaney Nwagboli, Brown, and Hanlon took sixth (54.70).
In terms of the boys’ other point scorers, senior captain Colin Tracy came in third place in the discus by throwing 121 feet and was fourth in the high jump at 5-4; junior Kory King had a great day by finishing fourth in the 110 hurdles (16.73), fifth in the triple jump (40-6), and sixth in the 300 hurdles (42.91); senior Carl Williams leaped to fourth in the long jump at 20-1 and took seventh in the 100 (11.90); senior Cam O’Neil came in seventh in the pole vault (10-0); and senior captain Ryan Connell finished eighth in the 800 at 2:07.38.