In the second year of single league championship meet for the 32-team Central Connecticut Conference, the largest high school conference in the state, the Avon High boys and girls track and field teams each finished seventh on Tuesday at New Britain’s Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Avon joined the CCC for the 2015-16 season and up through 2023, the league hosted divisional track and field meets for the CCC West, CCC South, CCC Central and CCC North.
The Avon High girls set or tied four new school records in Tuesday’s action while the boys had numerous personal best performances.
Six Avon girls earned top 10 finishes along with three relay teams.
Lauren Edge finished second in the 300 meter hurdles with a school-record time of 45.33 seconds, behind Bloomfield’s D’Asia Duncan, who won the race in 44.43 seconds. Edge beat Bloomfield’s Vanessa Armstrong, who finished third, by nearly a second (46.38).
Edge broke the record set by Carly Regalado (45.98) at the NCCC championship meet in 2015.
Avon’s Ferrari Jones also finished second with a leap of 5-feet-4 inches in the high jump. Glastonbury’s Eloise Mulberry also leaped 5-4 but finished first due to fewer misses. The leap tied the CCC meet record.
Jones also tied the school record of 5-4 set in 1987 by Janet Garrett in a dual meet against Tolland.
Falcon teammate Yasmin Rensch leaped 5-0 and finished fifth in the high jump.
A record-setting performance came from Avon’s 4×400 meter relay team (Emma Loparco, Lauren Edge, Kathryn Martin, Julia Freeman), who finished fourth with a school-record time of 4:04.48.
That shattered the previous school record of 4:08.32 set in 2014 by Jennifer Koo, Emma Schweitzer, Carly Regalado and Maddie McHugh.
The final record-setting performance came from Ziya Hudson with her school-record time of 26.21 in the 200 meters, earning her an eighth place finish. That erased a record held since 1991 by Jenny Plant of 26.41 set at the Class M championship meet.
Other top 10 finishes for Avon came from Ying Ying Cheng with a season-best time of 2:26.44 in the 800 meters to finish eighth and from Julia Freeman with a tenth place finish in the pole vault with a leap of 10 feet.
Emma Loparco had a personal-best time of 59.10 seconds in the 400 meters, which is the second-best time in school history. She finished eleventh. Martin also had a personal-best time of 59.13 in the 400, good enough for 12th place and No. 3 all-time at Avon.
Hudson also finished 12h in the triple jump with a leap of 32-6½ feet.
Avon’s 4×100 relay (Edge, Freeman, Hudson, Martin) finished fourth with a time of 49.38, which ranks No. 2 in school history. The same team ran a 49.07 last week against Simsbury.
Avon’s 4×800 relay (Laura Funderburk, Abigail Van Hoof, Spriha Dharan, Ying Ying Cheng) finished fifth with a time of 10:11.28 seconds.
The Falcons (5-2) finished with 36 points. Bloomfield won the CCC girls title with a 153-101 win over Windsor. Glastonbury was third with 93 points.
The Avon boys (5-2) also finished seventh with 36 points. They didn’t set any school records but had numerous personal bests and seven top 10 finishes by individuals and two relays.
Junior Chris Campbell had the best finish for Avon with a second place in the 3,200 meters with a personal-best time of 9:43.49. Hall’s Yohannes DeWander won the race in 9:43.18. Avon teammate Brahm Bulow finished seventh with a time of 9:50.6.
Avon’s 4×800 relay team (Campbell, William Lancaster, Aidan McLaughlin, Andrew Kessler) finished third with a time of 8:12.07. Bristol Central easily won the 4×800 in 8:03 with Windsor taking second in 8:06.
Avon’s Jaemin Aziz was fourth in the 200 meters with a personal-best time of 22.71 seconds while Lancaster was fifth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:59.43 seconds, just ahead of McLaughlin (1:59.62) in sixth place.
Avon’s Breno Lousada had a personal-best time of 40.93 in the 300 hurdles and finished fith.
Bulow was sixth in the 1,600 meters with a personal-best time of 4:25.94 while Kessler was 12th with a personal-best time of 4:35.13
Avon’s 4×400 relay (Aziz, Lancaster, Lousada, Kessler) finished eighth with a time of 3:30.33. That is the third-best time in school history in the 4×400.
Bloomfield won the CCC boys meet with 101 points with East Hartford (76) and Windsor (56) rounding out the top three.
Both Falcon teams will be completing at the CIAC Class MM championship meets on Saturday at Willow Brook Park in New Britain beginning at 11 a.m.
CCC championships
At New Britain
BOYS: 1. Bloomfield 101, 2. East Hartford 76, 3. Windsor 56, 4. Hall 55, 5. Southington 52, 6. Bristol Central 37, 7. Avon 36, 8. Simsbury 30, 9. New Britain 28, 10. Manchester 26, 11. E.O. Smith 24, 12. Farmington 21, 13. Platt 20, 14. Bristol Eastern and Tolland 19, 16. East Catholic and South Windsor 17, 18. Lewis Mills 14, 19. Plainville and Rocky Hill 12, 21. Middletown 9, 22. Enfield 5, 23. Berlin, Glastonbury and Newington 4, 26. Conard and RHAM 2
GIRLS: 1. Bloomfield 153, 2. Windsor 101, 3. Glastonbury 93, 4. Southington 50, 5. East Hartford and Manchester 37, 7. Avon 36, 8. Hall 25, 9. Plainville 23, 10. Simsbury 22.5, 11. South Windsor 16, 12. E.O. Smith 15, 13. Conard, Farmington, Maloney 14, 16. Enfield, Middletown, New Britain 7, 19. East Catholic and RHAM 6, 21. Newington 5.5, 22. Bristol Central 5, 23. Rocky Hill and Wethersfield 3, 25. Platt 2
