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Records fall in final weeks for Falcons track team

NEW BRITAIN, June 3 – Several records fell in the final weeks of the Avon High track season. Junior Titi Vanriel snapped her own school record in the 400 meters for the third straight meet with a stellar time of 59.19 seconds at the State Open championships at Willow Brook Park, good enough for 14th place.

A week earlier, Vanriel finished second in the 400 meters at the Class MM championship meet by just 0.10 second with a time of 58.38. Berlin’s Nikki Kureczka won the race in 58.48, just a second ahead of Vanriel, who leaned at the finish line to nip Darien’s Amanda Koslo by 0.03 of a second for the silver medal.

Avon had five other athletes competing at the State Open. A week after setting a new school record finishing second in Class MM in the 3,200 meters, Claire Smith took 11th at the Open with a time of 11:24.38. Avon’s 3,200 meter relay team (4×800) of Kalli Veldman, Vanriel, Claire Smith and Emily Kelly finished 16th in 9:55.81.

On the boys side, John Drago finished 24th in the 3,200 meters in 10:06.53 while teammate Bob Carver was 22nd in the javelin with a throw of 152 feet.

Drago and Smith set new school records at the Class MM championship meet in the 3,200 meters. With her time of 11:13.91, Smith cut 13 seconds off her personal best time in the 3,200 this season set a week earlier at the NCCC championships. She also topped the school record time of 11:22.0 that she ran a year ago at the Class M meet.

Even with her record time, Smith finished second to Darien’s Caroline McDonough, who won her second straight Class MM championship with a meet record time of 10:54.33. McDonough also won the 1,600 meter race – an impressive performance for an athlete who missed the FCIAC championships a week earlier with an illness.

Drago set a school record for the second time in a week. He broke his own school record in the 3,200 meters with a time of 9:58.48 and a second-place finish at the NCCC championship meet. At the Class MM meet, he topped that time by a whopping 16 seconds with a time of 9:42.44, good enough for third place in a very competitive race won by New Fairfield’s John Raneri in 9:23.66.

At the Class MM meet, the Avon High girls turned in their best finish since 2003 by finishing 14th with 21 points. The boys finished 16th with 13 points.
Vanriel was 10th in the long jump with a leap of 16-2 feet, just an inch shy of the school record set in 1998 by Alicia Farrell.

Vanriel was also part of the 3,200 meter relay team (Kalli Veldman, Smith, Vanriel, Emily Kelly) that made up six places in the final three legs to finish fifth (10:03.99).

Kelly finished 11th in the 800 meters with a season-best time of 2:23.61, less than 0.30 of second away from qualifying for the State Open. In high jump, Alyssa Burton and Brianna Noonan finished eighth and ninth, respectively, with jumps of 4 feet, 10 inches.

On the boys side, Brandon Burciaga was eighth in the shot put with a season-best throw of 44 feet and a quarter inch. He also was seventh in the javelin with a throw of 149 feet. Carver took fifth in the javelin with a season-best throw of 154 feet, eight inches.

The Avon High girls (12-2, 11-2 NCCC) were third in the NCCC championship meet while the Avon boys (10-4, 9-4 NCCC) were sixth in the NCCC meet.

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.

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