Avon’s 4×400 meter relay team set a new school record at Tuesday’s Class MM championships in New Britain, erasing a mark set in 1975. From left: Aidan McLaughlin, Will Lancaster, Jaemin Aziz and Breno Lousada. (Photo courtesy David Zlatin)
It was a historic day for the Avon High track and field programs at Tuesday’s Class MM championship meet at New Britain’s Veterans Memorial Stadium.
For just the third time in school history, the Avon boys and girls team each finished in the top five of their respective events and four of the six relay teams that ran for the Falcons under the warm June sunshine set school records. One relay team erased a 50-year-old record dating back to 1975.
The Avon girls finished fourth with 42½ points led by second place finishes from the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams and a third place finish from Lauren Edge in the 300 hurdles.
The Avon boys finished tied for fifth with Torrington with 48 points led by Brahm Bulow, who was second in the 3,200 meters and the boys 4×800 relay team, which also finished second.
The other times that both Avon teams finished in the top five was 1979 and 1993.
In the girls races, Avon’s 4×100 relay team (Julie Freeman, Edge, Ziya Hudson and Kathryn Martin) had a school record time of 49.02 seconds to take second behind champion Hillhouse (48.75). St. Joseph (49.27) was in third place. The team broke the school record set earlier this season.
Avon’s 4×400 relay (Freeman, Martin, Emma Loparco, Edge) had a school-record time of 4:02.03 and led for most of the final two legs. But Hillhouse’s Deanna Moore, the state champion in the 400 meters, just caught Martin at the finish line to give the Highlanders the 0.01 of a second victory. Hillhouse finished the race in 4:02.02.
Martin had the fastest 400 meter leg for Avon in the race (58.4 seconds) with Edge running a 59.8 second leg to give Avon the lead at the midway point of the race.
Avon’s 4×800 relay (Laura Funderburk, Ying Ying Cheng, Loparco, Abigail Van Hoof) finished fourth with a time of 9:45.98, good enough to qualify for Saturday’s State Open in New Britain.
The top three finishers in each race automatically qualify for the State Open along with the next best top 10 times from the five CIAC championship meets.
Edge was third in the 300 hurdles with a time of 46.01 while Martin finished fifth in the 400 meters with a time of 59.27, good enough to qualify for the State Open.
Other top 10 finishes for the Falcons came from Yasmin Rensch, who was fifth in the high jump (4-8), Cheng, who was sixth in the 800 (2:25.80) and 1,600 meters (5:25.71), Julia Freeman, seventh in the pole vault with a personal-best leap of 8-6, and Loparco, who was tenth in the 400 meters (1:01.02).
In the boys races, Bulow finished a distant second behind East Lyme’s Sean McCauley, who won the 3,200 meters in 9:21.59. Bulow finished with a time of 9:37.83. Falcon teammate Chris Campbell was fourth with a personal-best time of 9:39.15, good enough to qualify for the State Open.
Avon’s 4×800 relay team (Aidan McLaughlin, Campbell, Andrew Kessler and William Lancaster) finished second with a school-record time of 8:04.37, trailing just Bethel, who won the race in 8:02.53.
The Falcons led for three of the four laps before Bethel’s outstanding anchor runner, Yee-Jung Ng, ran down Lancaster to give Bethel a two-second win. Avon erased a school record set back in 2021.
Avon’s Breno Lousada finished third in the 110 hurdles (16.12) and 300 hurdles (personal-best time of 40.70) with teammate Akanksh Bhabad (40.76) finishing fourth in the 300 hurdles.
Avon’s 4×400 relay (Jaemin Aziz, Lousada, McLaughlin, Lancaster) were racing together for just the third time this season. Aziz gave the Falcons an early lead, running his leg in 50.6 seconds but the Falcons couldn’t hold the lead.
Still, they continued to run hard and finished with a time of 3:25.34, breaking the previous mark set in 1975 by 0.3 of a second. Harold Hackbarth, Craig Hackbarth, Brian McChesney and Rick Donohue ran 3:25.6 at the 1975 Class M championship meet.
Other top 10 finishes for the Falcons came from Bulow, who was sixth in the 1,600 meters (4:26.73), Lancaster, who was eighth in the 800 (2:03.25), Aziz, who was eighth in the 200 meters (23.02), McLaughlin, who was ninth in the 800 (2:03.42) and Kessler, who was ninth in the 1,600 meters (4:43.21).
2024 Class MM boys championship results (Athletic.net)
2024 Class MM girls championship results (Athletic.net)
