NORWICH – Both the Norwich boys’ and girls’ track and field teams came away with another dual meet win Tuesday afternoon, making their season in dual meets a perfect record for 2019.
The Purple Tornado boys captured first place in all events except the 110 meter hurdles, which was won by Matt Peske of the Chenango Forks Blue Devils. Norwich won the meet with a final score of 102-21.
Once again winning both the 100 and 200 meter races – the shortest distance of the events – was Norwich’s Eric Conant.
Conant took the 200 meter dash with a time of 23.1, but it was his time in the 100 meter event that blew the competition, the coaches and the fans away. The Norwich sprinting senior crossed the finish line in the straight away race with a time of 10.8 seconds, tying Norwich’s Jason Morris for the second fastest time in school history. Conant’s time was just a tenth of a second away from tying Zack Race’s record setting time of 10.7.
Taking both the 400 and 800 meter races was Gabe Gawronski. Running a time of 59.3 in the one lap race, Gawronski paced himself until the last 100 meters, where he turned it on to cross the finish line well ahead of any other competitor. He finished the two lap event in 2:18.3.
Gawronski also secured a win for his team in the high jump, finishing at a height of 5 feet-six inches. This is Gawronski’s first year in the event and he has excelled throughout the season.
The two – Conant and Gawronski – were Norwich’s only athletes with wins in four different events. The two raced together on the 4x400 meter relay team that finished first with a time of 3:54.7. Joining the two for that race were Noah Bufalini and Griffin Mills.
Mills and Conant were two of the four members on the 4x100 team that came in at a time of 50.1. David Berger and Nik Barber were the other two members.
Barber won the 400 meter hurdles, adding another win to the Norwich tally while Mills captured the long jump with a distance of 19 feet-9.75 inches.
Makaio Sutton and Julian Roque stole both wins in the distance races as Sutton won the 3200 meter race with a time of 10:52.2 and Roque won the 1600 meter event with a time of 4:56.2. Both ran with Stanton Baker and Nolan Reid to give Norwich the relay sweep, winning the 4x800 meter relay event. The four each ran two laps around the track to finish with a time of 10:20.4.
Zack Lowe once again captured first place in both the throwing events for Norwich, winning the discus with a distance of 116 feet and tossing the shot put 48 feet-4.75 inches. Eli Craddock added the win in the triple jump (41 feet-6.5 inches) while teammate Cameron Marvin finished at height of 8 feet-6 inches in the pole vault.
The Norwich girls’ team had a little bit more of test against the Lady Blue Devils, but came away with the 85-56 win.
Miranda Cole won both the 100 and 200 meter dashes for the Lady Tornado while Hailey Colabelli and Lucie Martin secured wins in the 400 and 800 meter events.
Norwich completed the relay sweep on the girls’ side of the meet as well, winning all three events.
Katie Gawronski once again won the 400 meter hurdles, inching closer to taking the school record every meet. She finished with a time of 1:06.8, which was also near a personal best time for the junior hurdler.
Martin also came away with the win in the long jump, landing at distance of 14 feet-11 inches. Shakira Alexander joined throwing teammate Lowe by winning both the discus and shot put events. She launched the discus 81 feet for the winning distance and tossed the shot put 28 feet- 2 inches for the win.
Chenango Forks won the 1500 and 3000 meter races, the 100 meter hurdles along with the triple jump, high jump and the pole vault.
Norwich hosts the 14th Annual REK Invitational Friday afternoon. The opening ceremony will begin at 4 p.m. while races and field events will start immediately after. There will be an intermission before the 100 meter dash to recognize all seniors participating in the meet. Norwich will honor their seniors at the conclusion after all the other schools.