Mastroianni Takes the 800 as Branford Places 5th in States
Senior Marzio Mastroianni finished first in the 800-meter run, placed second in the 1,600-meter run, and also ran on a victorious 4x800 relay to help the Branford boys’ outdoor track team take fifth place at last week’s Class MM State Championship. The Hornets scored 51 points as a team at the Class MM meet, which started at Middletown High School on May 29 and was completed at Willow Brook Park the following day due to rain.
Mastroianni ran a time of 1:56.05 to win the 800 at states, defeating runner-up Tobey Bill of Weston (1:58.57) by more than two seconds for the top spot to score 10 points for Branford. Mastroianni also scored eight points by placing second in the 1,600 with a time of 4:24.62. He had previously finished first in the 800 at both the SCC West Sectional Championship and the SCC Championship for second-straight season by posting times of 1:57.64 and 1:56.42, respectively.
In the 4x800 relay, the Hornets’ team of junior Nolan Scott, Mastroianni, junior Andrew Betzig, and senior Matt Daley scored 10 points by claiming first place with a time of 8:07.40, well-ahead of the second-place quartet from Avon (8:12.09).
Senior Derek Tratnyek had a big day in the distance events for Branford. Tratnyek finished second in the 3,200 by running a time of 9:41.47, scoring eight points. He also picked up four points with his fifth-place performance in the 1,600 behind a time of 4:36.00. Tratnyek had finished first in the 3,200 at West Sectional meet with a 9:56.17.
Senior Aidan Kropiwnicki cleared a height of 12 feet-6 inches to take third place in the pole vault and score six points in the event. Branford’s 4x400 relay of Daley, Scott, freshman Cheng Wu, and Kropiwnicki posted a time of 3:27.97 to place fourth and score five points.
Senior Brandon Perez finished 10th for the high jump (5-10) and came in 21st place in the long jump (18-2) for Branford. Senior Matt Alexander finished 14th in the high jump (5-8), while Daley came in 15th place for the 800 (2:06.31).
Branford’s 4x100 relay of junior Andrew Wirtz, senior Carlos Mccaay, sophomore Kamryn Holmes, and Wu finished 14th with a mark of 46.52. Junior Sean Jansen finished 18th in the pole vault (11-0), and Kropiwnicki came in 18th place for the preliminaries of the 110 high hurdles at 17.68 seconds. In the prelims of the 100-meter dash, Holmes finished in 41st (12.13), and Mccaay placed 43rd (12.17) for the Hornets.