SIMSBURY, May 13 –Freshman Chelsea Mitchell became the first Canton High girl to win an individual event at the 86th annual Greater Hartford Invitational Saturday at Simsbury High and she helped the Warriors’ 4×100 relay team become the first Canton relay team to win at the event.
It helped the Canton girls finish second in the Small Division at the Greater Hartford Invitational – their best-ever finish at the event.
The Canton boys finished third in the Small Division led by Max Sparks, who was second in the 1,600 meters and Dustin Van Kirk, who was second in the 110 and 300 meter hurdles races.
For the third time in the last four years, the Avon High girls finished fourth in the Large Division, led by Carly Carpino, who won the long jump for the second straight year. Marek Cierniewski finished second for the Avon boys in the javelin.
Canton's Chelsea Mitchell is the 100 meter dash champion at the Greater Hartford Invitational. Runs 12.80 for the victory. #cttrack pic.twitter.com/Ikl3xxDDbk
— Courant HS Sports (@CTHSSports) May 13, 2017
Mitchell became the first Canton girl to win an individual event, outrunning the field with a school record time of 12.80 seconds, beating Berlin’s Nikki Xiarhos with a time of 13.02 and Avon’s Gina Lindley in third place in 13.23 seconds.
Mitchell also ran on Canton’s winning 4×100 relay team (Maggie Archangelo, Amber Harraden, Emily Mitchell, Chelsea Mitchell) with a time of 50.82 seconds. Southington was second with a time of 51.54 seconds followed closely by Avon (Riley Abate, Molly Milligan, Alyssa Crawford, Gina Lindley) in 51.57 seconds.
Tolland, the defending State Open champions, ran away in the Small Division with 212 points. Canton was second with 111 points and Ellington third with 86.
Harraden took second in the 300 hurdles with a time of 47.57 seconds, just 0.21 of a second behind Somers’ Amanda Kauffman and 0.15 of a second ahead of Isabella Azur-Brandes of Pomperaug in third place.
Other top 10 finishes came from Canton’s 4×800 relay team (Abby Briggs, Emily Briggs, Jane Frawley, Helena Winkler) in fifth place with a school-record time of 10:24.23 and the 4×400 relay (Archangelo, Frawley, Harraden and Sophia Langou) which was seventh with a time of 4:28.86.
Chelsea Mitchell finished third in the 200 meters with a school record time of 26.40 seconds while Emily Mitchell took tenth in the 200 meters (27.88) and was eleventh in the long jump (14-9).Elizabeth Raynor was 11th in the pole vault with a leap of 7-6.
Van Kirk was second in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.66 seconds, just 0.14 of a second behind Northwest Catholic’s Asa Guest in 15.52. In the 300 hurdles, Hartford Public’s Leon Campbell won the race in 40.06 seconds with Van Kirk second with a time of 41.20 seconds and Ellington’s Joshua Prouty taking third in 42.33.
Van Kirk also scored points for the Warriors in the triple jump, taking third with a leap of 40 feet, 5½ inches.
Sparks was second in the 1,600 meters with a time of 4:26.25, a minute behind Simsbury’s Solomon Davis in 4:25.24. Sparks beat Xavier’s Owen Lally by 0.50 of a second for second place. Sparks also finished third in the 3,200 meters with a time of 9:42.78.
Peter Fuller and Patrick Lagonigro each finished tied for fourth place in the high jump with leaps of 5-6.
Chaz Williams was seventh in the 300 hurdles with a time of 43.27 seconds while Canton’s 4×800 relay (Andrew Obrzuit, Aidan O’Donnell, James Szpekmann, Max Sparks) finished seventh with a time of 8:30.34. The 4×400 relay (Brian Connelly, Max Epstein, Anthony Burns, Obrzuit) was eleventh with a time of 3:50.58.
It was the seventh straight year that the Canton boys earned a top three finish in the Small Division at the meet. Tolland won the Small Division with 146 points followed by Ellington with 98 and Canton with 95 points. Northwest Catholic was fourth with 79 points.
The Avon girls were led by Carpino, who won the long jump for the second straight year with a leap of 16-6½, which was 4½ inches ahead of Farmington’s Sophia Shack.
Avon’s 4×100 relay was third while Gina Lindley was third in the 100 meters. Haley Gens took fourth in the 3,200 meters with a time of 11:22.17. Emily Foley took fifth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:27.20 while Molly Milligan was sixth in the 400 meters in 1:02.79. Carpino took seventh in the 110 hurdles with a time of 16.68 seconds.
Three Avon athletes finished ninth. Sara Leavens was ninth in the 3,200 meters with a time of 11:45.62, Olivia Hyvn was ninth in the javelin with a throw of 89-7 and Audrey Worth was ninth in the pole vault with a leap of 7-6.
Avon’s 4×400 relay (Jillian Jurczyszak, Anya Ek, Jacenda O’Dwyer, Madison Sides) was ninth with a time of 4:37.02.
Cierniewski’s throw in the javelin of 170 feet was good enough for second place behind New Milford’s Craig Shanahan (174-5). Avon’s 4×400 relay (Zach Tilsch, Anish Rajamanickam, Zach Bortoff, V. Patchigolla) finished ninth with a time of 3:50.16. Bortoff was 12th in the 800 meters with a time of 2:03.83.
Since 2009, the Collinsville Press has been providing award-winning coverage of sports and news in the Farmington Valley and across Connecticut.


High School
2025 NCCC Winter Tournaments

High School
2025 CCC Winter Tournaments

You must be logged in to post a comment Login