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04/20/2020 12:00 AMWhile the East Haven boys’ indoor track team featured eight seniors this year, the girls’ squad had just one senior on its roster. Despite this difference in experience, each side of the program saw success both individually and as a group during the campaign.
The East Haven girls’ team put together a season that included a second-place finish at the SCC West Sectional Championship and an eighth-place performance in the SCC Championship. Then at the Class M State Championship, junior Kisha Francois won the long jump and also ran on the Easties’ 4x200 relay that took sixth place to advance to the State Open.
“The girls’ team had an excellent year. For the numbers we had, they really competed,” Head Coach Rusty Dunne said. “They did a great job. We got a lot of points from not a lot of girls.”
East Haven scored 73 points on its way to earning runner-up honors at the SCC West Sectional Championship on Jan. 28. Francois, who led the team with 115.25 points scored on the year, finished first in the long jump with a distance of 17 feet-3 inches and placed second for the 55-meter dash by running a time of 7.61 seconds at the meet.
Senior Edith Kwadan-naab finished second in the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 9.29, while sophomore Emily Mazzucco claimed second in the high jump by clearing 4-10. Freshman Jessica Urban also cleared 4-10 and wound up finishing third in the high jump for East Haven.
Sophomore Morgan D’Auria placed fourth in the high jump with a height of 4-8 and also earned top honors in the pole vault by reaching 7 feet. Junior Samantha Franceschi finished in a tie for second place in the pole vault at 6-6 and also took third in the 55-meter dash with a mark of 7.68 seconds.
Additionally, East Haven’s 4x200 relay of Francois, Kwadan-naab, Samantha Franceschi, and freshman Adriana Franceschi finished third with a time of 1:53.07.
“All those girls scored big points. We have a lot of point scorers on this team,” Coach Dunne said. “We sent 10 girls to that meet, and eight of them scored points. We don’t need a team of 60 to be successful. It says a lot about these girls and the hard work they put in.”
Francois, Kwadan-nabb, and the 4x200 relay team went on to compete at the SCC Championship on Feb. 7. Francois finished second in both the 55-meter dash (7.54) and the long jump (16-52.5), while Kwadan-nabb took third place in the 55-meter hurdles (9.19). The 4x200 relay posted a time of 1:52.57 to finish in fifth place.
On Feb. 15, Francois captured first place in the long jump at the Class M State Championship by hitting a distance of 17-3.25. She also came in second place for the 55 with a time of 7.46. The 4x200 relay claimed sixth place at 1:51.39 to advance to the State Open, where they finished 14th with a time of 1:51.80. Francois qualified to compete in both the long jump and the 55 at the Open, finishing in ninth place for the preliminary heat of the latter event with a time of 7.50 on behalf of Coach Dunne’s club.
“We’ve become a program over the years that is known to be excellent in its strengths,” said Dunne. “We scored a lot of points in the hurdles, jumps, and throws. Our 4x200 team is always good. We had two girls qualify for states in the 55-meters, three in the high hurdles, one of the best long jumpers in the state of Connecticut. We prosper in the areas we spend the most time on, but we spend the most of our time in those areas, because those are the kind of athletes we get.”
On the boys’ side, East Haven came in seventh place by totaling 27 points at the SCC West Sectional Championship. Senior Ian Loehmann, who led the Easties with 41 points this season, finished second in the high jump with a height of 5 feet-8 inches and also placed third for the 55-meter hurdles by timing in at 8.46 seconds.
Junior Radames Figueroa finished fourth in the 55-meter hurdles (8.65), and fellow junior Frank Piscitelli took fifth in the 300-meter dash (40.16). Senior Calvin Nelson launched a throw of 44-5.5 to come in fourth place for the shot put.
Junior Matt Battaglino finished sixth in the high jump (5-4), while Kevin Francois, also a junior, took sixth place in the long jump (18-4.25) for the Yellowjackets.
The Easties’ 4x200 relay team of Piscitelli, Figueroa, senior Dante Singular, and senior Andrew Jimenez finished fifth with a time of 1:41.73 at the sectional meet.
Figueroa went on to run a time of 8.63 seconds to take fifth place in the 55-meter hurdles at the SCC Championship. Loehmann finished sixth for the event with a time of 8.64. The 4x200 relay, which featured senior Nathan Santos instead of Figueroa, came in ninth place with a time of 1:40.82.
Loehmann finished 13th in the preliminaries of the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 8.54 seconds at the Class M State Championship. Figueroa finished 15th in the 55 hurdles prelims by posting a time of 8.66.
As Coach Dunne looks toward next season, he knows that he will see a lot of familiar faces on the girls’ team with plenty of underclassmen on the boys’ squad. Dunne is hoping to use what the Easties achieved this year as a stepping stone for more success going forward.
“We have 14 girls and 20 boys, because it’s hard to be on the team. It takes a lot of hard work to compete,” Dunne said. “If you’re not plugged into what we are doing, you aren’t going to hang around. We ask a lot of our athletes.”