Record number of points isn’t enough for Canton to beat Bloomfield for state title

Canton’s John Solomon was second in the 300 hurdles and sixth in the 110 high hurdles for Canton.

NEW BRITAIN, June 3 – It’s the most points that the Canton High boys track and field team has ever scored in a CIAC championship meet. It wasn’t enough.

Bloomfield High turned in some outstanding performances in five field events to hold off Canton and win its ninth consecutive state championship Wednesday in the Class S boys championship meet at Willow Brook Park.

The Warhawks outscored Canton, 112 to 105 to capture a meet that began Monday in the rain and was suspended. The meet was completed Wednesday afternoon. Old Saybrook was third with 84½ and Northwest Catholic was a very distant fourth with 36½ points.

Bloomfield, which has won five times in Class S and four times in Class M over the past decade, had four athletes in the top seven in the discus (first, fourth, sixth, seventh) and three of the top five (first, second, fifth) in the shot put. They had multiple medalists in the long jump and triple jump.

Canton’s previous best at the Class S tournament was 85 points in 2013 when they won their second Class S title. It is the third time in the last four years that Canton has finished second at the Class S meet.

“Bloomfield had a good day,” said Canton coach Tim O’Donnell said. “It was about as good a performance that I could have hoped for (from his team). Across the board, there were a lot of best times and people were leaping ahead of their seeds.”

Canton won two individual state titles. Cam Daley won the Class S title in the 300 hurdles with a winning time of 40.94 seconds, beating teammate John Solomon, who was second in 41.56. Solomon surged at the finish to catch Old Saybrook’s Lucas Sumby. Canton’s Dustin Van Kirk was fourth in 41.69.

“Cam looked like a state champion,” O’Donnell said. “It was close early but at the sixth hurdle, Cam opened it up.”

Canton’s 4×800 meter relay team (freshman Max Sparks, senior Dean Yost, senior James Yost and senior Augden Shaw) turned in a season-best time of 8:21.61 to beat Litchfield by more than four seconds on a cold, wet and rainy Monday.

The Warriors will have plenty of competitors at next week’s State Open championships in New Britain on Monday. The top five athletes in each event qualify.

Daley was third in the 110 hurdles in 16.21 seconds and fifth in the javelin with a throw of 137 feet, one inch in the rain on Monday. Will Briggs was third in the discus with a throw of 149-11, three feet longer than his best of the year while Keegan Toland was seventh in the shot with a throw of 40-5¾ feet.

The Yost brothers had a good meet. James finished third in the 1,600 meters in the pouring rain on Monday with Dean taking fourth. On Wednesday, the two ran exceptional races in the 3,200 meters. James Yost was second in 9:51.55, cutting seven seconds off his best time of the spring. Dean Yost was even better, taking third as he trimmed 31 seconds off his best time of the year, finishing in 9:51.81.

Van Kirk took fourth in the 110 hurdles, too while Solomon was sixth in the 110 hurdles. Canton won six medals in the two hurdles races. Nico Tuccillo was third in the 400 meters, Stephen Oliver was fourth in the pole vault and Augie Shaw was seventh in the 800 meters.

Canton’s 4×400 relay (Brad Connelly, Augie Shaw, Matt Pickett, Nico Tuccillo) was fourth in 3:32.32, slicing five seconds off their best time of the season.

Canton’s Emily Mitchell set a new school record in the 200 meters at the Class S meet and ran on two relays for Canton.

The Canton girls scored the most points they have ever scored at the Class S meet, 20, and finished in a three-way tie for 11th place. “The girls had an equally good day,” O’Donnell said.

Canton athletes set new school records in four different events. Emily Mitchell finished 14th in the 200 meters with a school record time of 27.24 seconds, breaking the old mark set by Alex Martin (27.94) in 2012. Abby Briggs was ninth in the 800 meters but she broke the school record she set a week ago at the NCCC championship by five seconds with her time of 2:26.30.

Lucy Tanner broke the school record she set earlier this year at the Grady Relays in Danbury by taking third in the 300 hurdles with a time of 47.92 seconds, eclipsing her mark of 48.83 seconds. Tanner also took sixth in the 100 hurdles in 17.15 seconds.

Canton’s 4×400 relay team of Mitchell, Abby Briggs, Jocelyn Rossitto and Amber Harraden took sixth with a school record time of 4:18.30, breaking the record that they set a week ago at the NCCC championship meet by nearly four seconds. Rossitto ran the 3,200 meters a few minutes before running the relay but Canton didn’t have enough runners to field a team. Harraden had an excellent finish to help the Warriors finish strong.

In the 800 meters, Harraden took eighth in 1:02.50, just 0.02 of a second off the school record. In the 3,200 meters, Emily Briggs was ninth while Rossitto was tenth. Canton’s 4×800 (Cam McCauley, Abby Briggs, Jocelyn Rossitto, Emily Briggs) finished fifth while the 4×100 relay (Emma Skinner, Amber Harraden, Emily Mitchell, Lucy Tanner) finished sixth.

NOTES: Canton’s 105 points is the most points scored by a team in Connecticut track and field that finished second since the current format (18 events including three relays and scoring eight places) was begun in 2001. Wethersfield scored 97.5 points and finished second in Class L on Thursday morning. Canton broke the record a few hours later.  … Canton lost to Bloomfield by seven points. In the last 10 years, the Warhawks have won their state championships by an average of 51 points. Before the Warriors, the closest an opponent came to Bloomfield was Prince Tech, which lost by 10 in 2009, 91-81 in the Class M meet.