
Canton’s Chelsea Mitchell, left, races away after taking the handoff from Julia Caputo in the Distance Medley relay at Friday’s Yale Interscholastic Classic at historic Coxe Cage. (Photo courtesy Bill Brewster)
CANTON, January 20 — In multiple venues, the Canton High indoor track and field team had a busy weekend with athletes competing at the 36th Yale Interscholastic Track Classic at Coxe Cage in New Haven and a little closer to home at the NCCC Invitational at Hartford Public.
One of the attractions to competing at Yale is the opportunity to run at historic Coxe Cage on the Yale campus, first opened in 1928. The banked track generally provides a much faster running surface than competing in facilities with flat surfaces.
Five of the seven runners in the 300 meters posted season or personal bests including sophomore Chelsea Mitchell, who finished seventh overall out of 123 competitors with a time of 42.28 seconds, just 0.03 off her own school record.
Canton set a pair of school records in the Distance Medley Relay with legs of 1,200, 400, 800 and 1,600 meters. The Canton girls (Julia Caputo, Mitchell, Helena Winkler, Jane Frawley) finished third with a time of 13:25.53, slashing 10 seconds off the record time set here at this meet a year ago.
The Canton boys (Aidan O’Donnell, Michael Cavanaugh, Andy Obrzut, Max Sparks) finished fifth with a school record performance of 11:09.77, knocking 11 seconds off the record time set in 2015

Max Sparks, left, takes the handoff from Andy Obrzut in Friday’s Yale Interscholastic Classic in New Haven. (Photo courtesy Bill Brewster)
The 300 meter and distance medley races were held on Friday night. Several Warriors returned to Yale on Saturday for additional competition in the 3,000 meter races.
Julia Caputo finished 29th in a field of 228 runners with a time of 10:46.33, which the CIAC converts to 11:33.96 for 3,200 meters – almost seven seconds better than her own school record. Jane Frawley made her 3,000 debut with a time of 11:34.83 (107th place), which converts to a time of 12:26.04 in the 3,200 meters.
On the boys side, Max Sparks won his heat and finished 15th in the 3,000 meters with a time of 8:51.97 in a field of 324 runners. That time would be converted by the CIAC to 9:31.18 in the 3,200 meters, nearly 10 seconds better than his record time of 9:40.81 that he set a year ago here at Coxe Cage.
A significant number of Canton athletes traveled to Hartford Public to participate in the NCCC Invitational Saturday afternoon. Mitchell had an outstanding performance by winning three events – 55 meter dash, 300 meters and long jump.
Mitchell won the 55 meters in 7.7 seconds, captured the 300 meters with a time of 44.08 seconds and leaped 16-feet-8 to win and set a new school record. Mitchell broke the long jump school record of 15-11 that was held by her sister, Emily.
Maddie Archangelo finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 15-3½ while Frawley took sixth in the 600 meters with a time of 1:55.01. Emma Gallant finished eighth in the 1,600 meters with a season-best time of 6:09.86
On the boys side, Canton’s Peter Fuller had top 10 finishes in three events. Fuller won the high jump with a leap of 5-foot-10 and took ninth in the 300 meters with a time of 40.24 seconds. He finished tenth in the long jump with a season-best jump of 18-5¾ feet.
Andrew Obrzut was fourth in the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:55.67 while Aidan O’Donnell was ninth in the 600 meters with a time of 1:34.96.

Jane Frawley leads a pack of runners at the Yale Interscholastic Classic at Coxe Cage in New Haven. (Photo courtesy Bill Brewster)
Canton’s 4×400 relay (Obrzut, O’Donnell, Szpekman, Sparks) finished second with a time of 3:50.24.
The Warriors will compete again at the Bacon Academy Invitational Saturday in New Haven and hit the floor at the Floyd Little Athletic Center on Tuesday, January 30 for the NCCC championship meet beginning at 4 p.m. The Canton girls are the defending league champions.

Athletes race in the Distance Medley relay at Coxe Cage on the Yale University campus Friday. (Photo courtesy Bill Brewster)
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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