By GERRY deSIMAS, JR.
Collinsville Press.com
NEW HAVEN, Feb. 11 -- It’s never easy to practice and prepare for the indoor track and field season in New England. Practice time is minimal, especially with the field events, and the cold makes running outside a challenge.
This winter’s record snowfall has made it more difficult with narrow, snow-filled streets, high snowbanks that make running difficult and dangerous and plenty of snow days that cancel school and any official team practice.
That challenge that intrigues the athletes on the Canton High track and field program. “It’s hard but we try to work through it,” Canton’s Jon Melite said. Earlier this month, they disabled three treadmills in the wrestling room at the high school due to excessive use.
The hard work is paying off. The Canton boys easily won their second straight NCCC championship last week as David Kucia (55 hurdles), Kevin Kurnat (1,000 meters) and Dylan Smith (shot) won individual events and the Warriors won three relay events.
The Canton girls had their best-ever performance at the NCCC meet, taking third with its 1,600 sprint medley team taking second and six athletes earning top five finishes.
“This title means a lot to us,” Canton coach Mike Hughes said. “They like competing and they like winning. They want to keep it going.”
Canton has won five straight league tournaments over the last two seasons, winning cross country meets in 2009 and 2010, the last two NCCC indoor track championships and the 2010 outdoor track tournament.
Senior David Kucia set a new school record and tied a league record with his time of 8.08 seconds in his winning run in the 55 meter hurdles. He won the race by 0.63 of a second. Teammate Tyler Van Kirk was fourth in 8.99.
Kucia also finished second in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet and a half inch while teammate Kyle Hall was third in 18 feet, 8.25 inches.
Senior Dylan Smith won the shot by 10 inches with his throw of 44 feet, 4 inches. Kevin Kurnat won the 1,000 meters in 2:48.85, just a 0.23 of a second ahead of teammate Nick Chekas.
Canton’s depth and strength on the track was evident. The Warriors had three runners in the top 10 of the 600 meters led by Melite in fourth place. They had three runners in the top eight in the 1,600 meters led by Kurnat and three runners in the top six in the 3,200 meters led by Chekas (second), Ned Furtney (third) and Peter LeDuc (sixth).
Canton won the 1,600 sprint medley relay (Chekas, Kucia, Van Kirk, Jeff Lochner) by 2.5 seconds and captured the 4x400 relay (Jarrett Chouinard, Tyler Fitzpatrick, Kurnat, Melite) by six seconds.
The Warriors were also third in the 4x800 relay and the 4x200 relay.
On the Canton girls team, 1,600 sprint medley team (Lindsey Phelps, Kate Talbot, Sarah Allen and Deanna Nappi) finished second, just 0.79 seconds behind Ellington.
Anna Waite took third in the shot with a throw of 28 feet, four inches while Camila Rich took fourth in the high jump and Nappi finished fourth in the 1,000 meters. Allen and Rose Minichello were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the long jump. Rich also took fifth in the 55 hurdles.
Canton’s 4x200 relay team (Nappi, Talbot, Phelps, Minichello) finished third.
At the Class S championship meet, Kucia took third in the 55 hurdles in 8.14. The top two runners from Weaver and Bloomfield, respectively, ran times of 7.83 and 7.94. Canton’s sprint medley relay (Hall, Locher, Fitzpatrick, Chekas) took fourth with a season-best time of 3:49.38.
Canton breaks ground, captures HK Invitational
By GERRY deSIMAS, JR.
Collinsville Press.com
CANTON, Jan. 23 – The Canton High indoor track and field team continues to break down barriers. A year ago, the boys indoor track team won a NCCC championship in just its second varsity campaign.
On Saturday, the Warriors captured their first invitational event with an impressive victory in the Haddam-Killingworth Invitational at the New Haven Athletic Center at Hillhouse High in New Haven.
Canton beat some impressive programs including Tolland, Hartford-based Capital Prep, Berlin, Coginchaug and Northwest Catholic.
With two relay teams and Dylan Smith coming up with victories, Canton scored 41 points to outlast Old Saybrook with 35. Tolland was third with 33 points in the field of 40 teams.
The indoor track and field season consists primarily of developmental meets, although there are some established meets and the conference championship events. Canton will defend its NCCC championship on Monday, Feb. 7, at Hillhouse.
At the H-K Invitaitonal, Canton was dominant in the 1,600 meter sprint medley relay with Nick Chekas, Dave Solomon, David Kucia and Kyle Hall racing to an easy nine second victory with a time of 3:50.25, which qualified the team for the upcoming CIAC Class S championship meet on February 10.
The Warriors also won the 4x400 meter relay with Kevin Kurnat, Solomon, Jon Melite and Tyler Fitzgerald earning a three-second win as Canton turned in a state qualifying time of 3:43.65.
Dylan Smith won the shot put with a throw of 43 feet, five inches, winning by nearly two feet over his nearest competitor.
Kucia set a new school record in the 55 hurdles with his time of 8.19, good enough for third place in the event. He broke his own record set in last year’s NCCC championship meet of 8.48 seconds.
Kurnat also qualified for the Class S meet with a fourth place finish in the 1,600 meters in 4:41.78.
Chekas took sixth in the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:56.54 while Melite was eighth in the 600 meters in 1:32.32. Peter Leduc was 10th in the 3,200 meters in 10:21.32, earning a spot in the Class S championships.
In the girls events, Lindsey Phelps was seventh in the 55 meters in 9.81.
