With winning relay team, Canton boys bring home another trophy

Keith Wilson, center, won his second individual state title Wednesday and ran on Canton’s winning 4×400 relay team at the Class S championships.

In the race for a CIAC championship trophy, it came down to the final event of the day for the Canton High boys track and field team.

The Warriors weren’t vying for the Class S championship trophy. Bloomfield easily won its eighth straight state championship with 133 points by winning five events, taking home five silver medals and three bronze medals.

Canton was racing for the second place trophy and they trailed Old Saybrook by 3½ points going into the final event of the afternoon – the 4×400 relay.

But Canton rolled to dominating three-second win over Bloomfield to set a new school record, win the state title in the 4×400 and take second in the Class S championship meet at Danbury High. The Warriors finished with 62 points with Old Saybrook taking third with 58½ points.

For the Warriors, it was their fourth straight season finishing among the top two teams in Class S. They won it all in 2011 and 2013. 

Keith Wilson won his second Class S championship. A year ago, he won in the 400 meters. On Wednesday, he set a new Class S championship meet record with his victory in the 300 intermediate hurdles in 39.0 seconds. That breaks the old record of 39.15 seconds set by St. Paul’s Marcus Aiken in 2008.

Canton’s 4×400 relay (Cam Daley, Colin Martin, Nico Tucillo and Wilson) won the race in 3:24.06, beat Bloomfield and earned a spot in Monday’s State Open championship meet. It’s the first relay team to win a state championship at Canton.

The Canton girls had an exceptional day, too. The Warriors finished eighth with a school record 28 points. Canton tied or set new six new school records, led by sophomore Lucy Tanner, who was second in the 100 hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles.

It was an exceptional afternoon for Wilson and the entire Warrior program. Nearly every Canton athlete –boys and girls – turned in their best performance of the spring.

Wilson shattered the school record in the 300 hurdles by 1.09 seconds. The old mark was set by David Kucia in 2011 at the State Open. Wilson beat Bloomfield’s Travis Thompson by 1.62 of a second to win the event. Canton’s Cam Daley was eighth in 43.09.

Wilson had the fastest time in qualifying in the 110 intermediate hurdles in 15.70 seconds. He was faster in the final but he finished third in 15.54 seconds. Defending State Open champion Izaiah McEwen of Bloomfield was third in 14.87 and Old Saybrook’s Clayton Hobbs was second in 15.25.

In the 400 meters, Canton’s Nico Tucillo and Colin Martin finished third and fourth, respectively with their best times of the spring, 51.88 and 52.03 seconds.

Daley took third in the javelin with a season-best throw of 154 feet, six inches. John Graziano exceeded his best throw of the season in the discus by nine feet and took fourth with a throw of 138 feet, three inches. Devin Glasson was fifth in the shot with a season-best throw of 47 feet, 5½ inches. Dean Yost was fifth in the 1,600 meters in 4:34.37 and eighth in the 800 meters in 2:02.96.Canton’s 4×800 relay (Owen Perks, Augie Shaw, Dean Yost, James Yost) finished fifth.

Canton sophomore Lucy Tanner set two new school records and earned a pair of top four finishes in the hurdles at the Class S championship meet.

The Canton High girls had a historic afternoon, scoring 28 points. In the nine previous trips to the Class S tournament, Canton scored just one point and that was a year ago.

Tanner set two new school records. A week ago, Tanner set the NCCC championship meet record in the 300 hurdles, winning the event in 47.34. She ran faster at the Class S meet, taking third in 47.19 seconds. It’s the highest finish ever for a Canton girl at the Class S championship meet. Teammate Alex Martin was seventh in 49.21 seconds.

In the 100 hurdles, Tanner finished fourth in 16.11. But she set a new school record with her qualifying time of 16.07 seconds.

Canton had two relay teams finish fourth, which are the best finishes ever for the Warriors at the Class S meet.

The 4×800 relay team (Emily Briggs, Eliza Chekas, Emily Jarka, Abby Briggs) and the 4×100 relay team (Emily Mitchell, Amber Harraden, Martin and Tanner) each took fourth place with school record times of 10:16.13 and 51.60 seconds, respectively. The 4×800 relay knocked nearly 20 seconds off their previous best time this season.

Pole valuter Emily Chouinard was 14th with a leap of 7 feet, which ties the record she holds with teammate Lindsay Milligan.

Chekas finished fifth in the 3,200 meters with a school record time of 11:46.14 seconds. She took nearly 24 seconds off her own record that she earlier in May at the Greater Hartford Invitational.