
Canton’s Dustin Van Kirk finished fifth in the 55 hurdles at Tuesday’s Class S championships to earn a berth at next week’s State Open championships. (Photo courtesy Bill Brewster)
NEW HAVEN, Feb. 14 – The Canton High girls indoor track and field team continues to break barriers.
A week ago, the Warriors won their first indoor track championship, claiming the North Central Connecticut Conference crown. On Tuesday night, Canton finished seventh at the CIAC Class S championship – their best finish ever – and had athletes qualify for the State Open championships for the first time.
Freshman Chelsea Mitchell finished third in the 300 meters in 42.25 seconds and earned an invitation to the Monday’s State Open meet in New Haven along with Canton’s 4×200 relay team (Madeline Archangelo, Chelsea Mitchell, Emily Mitchell, Amber Harradan), that finished second with a school-record time of 1:51.19.
A week ago, the Canton boys finished second at the NCCC championship meet for the fifth straight year. They couldn’t keep the momentum going at the Class S championships, taking 15th with just 14 points – their lowest scoring output since finishing 19th with nine points in 2012.
The Canton girls scored the most points they ever have scored in the Class S championships. In fact, they scored more points (19) than in the previous years of competition combined.

Canton freshman Chelsea Mitchell finished third in the 300 meters with a school record time in Tuesday’s Class S championships. (Photo courtesy Bill Brewster)
Mitchell set a new school record with her time of 42.25 in the 300 meters. Canton’s 4×200 relay team may have run a new record time of 1:51.19 but it was far behind Bloomfield, which won with a time of 1:44.25. The Warriors were still two seconds ahead of the third place Old Saybrook.
Canton’s 4×400 relay (Mitchell, Archanagelo, Abby Briggs, Harradan) set a new school record of 4:24.59 with their seventh place finish while the sprint medley relay (Harradan, Chelesa Mitchell, Sofia Langou and Abby Briggs) finished seventh with a time of 4:38.18, the second best time in school history.
Canton’s 4×800 relay (Helena Winkler, Jane Frawley, Cameron McCauley, Abby Briggs) finished third with a time of 10:45.08 – the third best time in team history.
Frawley finished sixth in the 1,600 meters in 5:42.01 and tenth in the 3,200 meters in 12:37.87. Archangelo took ninth in the high jump (4-8) while Emily Mitchell was 11th in the long jump (15-4).
Max Sparks had a good afternoon

Canton’s Jane Frawley had two top 10 finishes in Tuesday’s Class S championships. (Photo courtesy Bill Brewster)
for the Warriors, taking second in the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:39.59, finishing behind state champion Connor Ratte of Coventry (2:36.28). Sparks also was ninth in the 3,200 meters.
Dustin Van Kirk took fifth in the 55 hurdles with a time of 8.45 seconds. He finished fourth in qualifying with a time of 8.29 seconds.
Sparks in the 1,000 meters and Van Kirk earned invitations to the upcoming State Open championships.
Van Kirk also finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 20-2¼ feet. All of Canton’s relays (4×200, 4×800, 4×400, sprint medley) all ran slower times than they did at the NCCC championships.
The sprint medley team (Chaz Williams, Jesse Waite, Van Kirk, Sparks) did finish fifth with a time of 3:51.52.
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 30 years.


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