Sections
 Syndication |
Poll: Holidays
Boys' Track Wins Copper but Can't Catch SeymourMay 13,2009 By K. Brennan 
No team has been able to unseat Seymour as the dominant team in Naugatuck Valley League boys’ outdoor track competition in the last few years. But there was more on the line for Woodland and Naugatuck at Tuesday’s meet in Beacon Falls--the Copper Division championship. Although neither team defeated the Wildcats, the Hawks outscored the Hounds, 94-56, to capture their second-consecutive Copper crown. The Hawks dominated the relay events on the day, starting with the 4-by-800-meter relay. The team consisting of seniors Zak Favoccia and Josh Fitzpatrick, junior Tyler Murphy, and freshman Eric Dietz won the opening race of the day in 8 minutes, 19.53 seconds. Woodland followed up the 4-by-800 win with a victory in the 4-by-100 sprint relay. The all-junior squad of John Plaskon, Dan Park, Chris Savvidou, and Brandon Fowler finished with a time of 44.65 seconds to give the Hawks an early lead. But Seymour rallied back in the next three individual events, taking the 100-meter dash, 1600-meter run, and 400-meter dash, to pull ahead with several events to go. The hopes of Naugatuck rested in large part on the legs of all-everything senior Mohamed Hrezi. Hrezi did his part, easily winning both the 800-meter run (2:04.84) and the 3200-meter run (10:04), setting a school record in the latter. “Mo is one of those versatile athletes that I can put anywhere and he’s ready to go,” Naugatuck Head Coach Ralph Roper said. “Some days I’ll use him in distance running, some days I’ll use him in sprints, and some days I’ll use him in both, like today. It takes a team effort to win, but he’s a strong contributor to the effort.”
Following Hrezi’s dominating run in the 3200 came the most exciting race of the day, the 4-by-400-meter relay. Woodland’s strongest team, a group which competed earlier this year at the Penn Relays, was looking to secure much-needed points, while a win by Naugatuck would have put the Hounds ahead in the chase for the Copper. The lead changed several times between Woodland and Naugy throughout first three legs of the relay. Fowler handed the baton to Favoccia with a solid lead, but the Hounds once again counted on Hrezi, and by the turn to the final 200 meters, he had opened up a small lead. Favoccia tracked Hrezi down through the turn, but as the pair broke for the final 100 meters, Hrezi held a meter’s lead. With 25 meters to go, Favoccia pulled even with Hrezi and just ducked his head in ahead of Hrezi to win the relay in a time of 3:33.31. “At last year’s meet, Hrezi got Favoccia at the line, but this time, Favoccia got Hrezi,” Woodland Head Coach Tim Shea said. “Our guys pride in that race with the out-of-state meets they travel to, and they got the job done today.” “We wanted to be competitive in the race, and we were,” Roper said. “Woodland had a really good team. We had a chance at the end, but the 3200 really took a lot out of Mo.” The Woodland win in the 4-by-400 added to the victories on the day, which included junior Jim Hart’s discus throw of 116 feet, 5 inches and junior Dan Park’s trifecta, winning the 200-meter dash (:22.76), long jump (19-8), and triple jump (42-11.5). Naugatuck junior Peter Rodrigues won the pole vault with a height of 12 feet to conclude the Hounds’ scoring for the day, but it was not enough, and the Hawks won their second-straight Copper Division title. “Our goal is always to win the division, and now we’ve done that back-to-back,” Shea said. “We want to be in a position to win the league title, and the last two years, we’re 25-2, so we’re always right there. We’re looking forward to getting healthy for NVL’s.” Seymour won both meets, 82-68 over Woodland and 87-63 over Naugatuck, to win the Brass Division and NVL regular season. The three will square off again at the NVL championships on May 26 at Woodland. 178 times read
|
|||
|
|||
