This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Branford Boys’ Track Takes 3rd Place at Sectionals

The Branford boys’ outdoor track squad put together a spectacular showing at last week’s SCC West Sectional Championship. The Hornets took third place as a team by scoring 111 points and also saw three athletes finish first in individual events at the meet, which took place at Bowen Field in New Haven on May 15. Senior Marzio Mastroianni won the 800-meter run, senior Derek Tratnyek took first in the 3,200-meter run, and fellow senior Aidan Kropiwnicki claimed first in the 300 intermediate hurdles for the Hornets.

Mastroianni ran a time of 1:57.64 to place first in the 800 for the second year in a row at the West Sectional meet. Senior teammate Matt Daley finished as the runner-up in the event by posting a time of 1:59.17. Mastroianni also claimed second place in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:23.70.

Tratnyek paced his way to a time of 9:56.17 to finish first in the 3,200, beating out Travis Martin of Cross (9:56.57) by less than a second to get the victory. Tratnyek also took eighth place in the 1,600 with a 4:29.85, becoming just the 14th Hornets’ runner in the last 60 years to break the 4:30 barrier in that event.

Kropiwnicki’s victory in the 300 intermediate hurdles was another close one. The senior ran a time of 41.28 seconds to edge out runner-up Nicholas Vollero of Notre Dame-West Haven, who finished in 41.45. Kropiwnicki also earned second place in a pair of events for Branford. Kropiwnicki finished second in the pole vault by clearing 11 feet-6 inches and recorded a second-place showing in the javelin with a throw of 134-2.

Branford’s 4x800 relay of freshman Cheng Wu, junior Andrew Betzig, freshman Wyatt Reynolds, and junior Nolan Scott came in second place at sectionals by recording a time of 8:28.60.

Senior Brandon Perez cleared 5-8 to take third place in the high jump, while sophomore Mekhi Barnette finished sixth at 5-4. Sophomore Amari Phillips finished fourth in the discus with a toss of 102-11. GianCarlo Giannini placed sixth (102-2) in the event, and fellow senior Hunter Giordano took eighth place (100-9).

The Hornets’ 4x400 relay of Wu, Mastroianni, Scott, and Daley finished in fourth place with a time of 3:30.40. The 4x100 relay featuring junior Andrew Wirtz, Barnette, sophomore Kam Holmes, and Perez timed in at 46.16 to finish fifth.

Sophomore David Tedeschi took fifth place (128-7) in the javelin, while senior Jason Johnson came in ninth place (116-3) for the event. Sophomore Ryan Hanniford placed sixth in the preliminaries of the 110 high hurdles with a time of 18.06 seconds and then finished seventh in the finals at 18.17.

In the pole vault, junior Sean Jansen, Hanniford, and Wirtz all cleared 10 feet to finish in sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively, while senior Justin Dombrowski placed 10th with a height of 9-6. Senior Hunter Giordano took eighth place in the shot put with a throw of 37-3.5 for Branford. Junior Ayden Sahin finished ninth for the 300 hurdles by running a time of 47.77.

In the 400, Wu ran a time of 54.26 seconds to finish in 13th place and break the Hornets’ freshman record for the event. Head Coach Biondi also noted a strong showing from Pat Zdunek in the 1,600, where the freshman eclipsed the five-minute mark by running a time 4:57.67 to take 16th place.

Branford is coming off of a regular season that saw the Hornets finish with an overall record of 9-2. The Hornets also posted a mark of 4-0 in the SCC Oronoque Division to win their first division title since 2015. Up next for the Hornets is the Class MM State Championship that will be held at Avon High School at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 29.