NEW BRITAIN — They were seeded No. 1 and they did not disappoint, and in doing so they carried their team to new heights.
Southington seniors Megan Biscoglio and Amanda Howe won State Open championships Monday at Veterans Stadium and their first-place points catapulted the Southington girls track program to its first-ever State Open team championship.
The Blue Knights amassed 35 points to out-score runner-up Blomfield (32) and perennial champ Danbury (28).
Southington won despite have no runners at Monday’s Open.
“It's pretty surreal,” Southington coach Connor Green said. “Coming in, I knew we had the potential to be top five. But after they finished and, looking at the results, I saw we were still up there.
“We were up going into the 4x400 and we didn't have one, so it was pretty nerve-wracking. I never found myself rooting for Greenwich and Glastonbury so much before. To be up there with them means a lot to us and it means a lot to these kids."
Biscoglio and Howe both repeated as State Open champs — Biscoglio in the pole vault and Howe in the discus. Howe also won the shot put, doubling down just as she did in last week’s Class LL meet.
Biscoglio punctured her championship by tying the State Open girls pole vault record of 12 feet, 6 inches.
Howe won the shot put with a throw of 40 feet, 4 inches on her first attempt. Several hours later, she captured discus at 132-3.
Those three first-place finishes, combined with senior Janette Wadolowski’s fourth-place showing in the javelin, provided all of Southington’s team scoring.
Wadolowski, in combination with Lyman Hall senior Sierrah Rich, provided a neat story twist to State Open. Both girls are former softball players who took up javelin this spring. Rich was second Monday at 111 feet, 11 inches. Wadolowski threw for110- 8.
Wadolowski, who is going on to play basketball at Tufts University, won Class LL javelin last week.
In all, five area throwers qualifed for the State Open in javelin. Joining Rich and Wadolowski were Southington senior Mikaela June (12th, 106-10), Maloney junior Mychael Guallaher (16th, 100-11) and Platt senior Kiara Lopez (18th, 98-10).
Girls pole vault, discus and shot put were also area-rich fields.
In pole vault, Class MM champ Stephanie Phoenix of Sheehan tied for fourth at 10-6. Her teammate, Kyra Connolly, was 13th at 9-6. Maloney’s Hannah Cloutier, who injured her ankle at the Class L meet, qualified for the Open, but did not compete.
There were also four area qualifiers in discus. Following Howe were SCC champ Amanda Brown of Sheehan (7thh, 111-6) and a pair of Maloney girls, Shanice Smith (17thh, 95-3) and Courtney Ubaike (23rdd, 80-11).
In the shot, Lyman Hall senior Jaylona Murphy (33-4) and Southington sophomore Trinity Cardillo (33-3½) were 19-20, respectively.
On the track, Sheehan sophomore Terrence Bogan, the Class MM champ in the 100 meters, placed 11th in that race in 11.21 seconds. He also qualified in the 200 and finished 14th in 23.28.
Another area sprinter, Cheshire senior Liam Killea, capped a solid career with an eighth-place showing in the 400 (50.08). Lyman Hall senior Blake Jandreau was 17th in that same race in 51.44.
Jandreau later joined teammates Michael Toppin, Andrew Horobin and R.J. Ottens for a seventh-place finsh in the 4x400 (3:25.59).
Toppin was 22nd in the triple jump (40-7¾), while Ottens and Horobin opened the day teaming with Luke Horobin and Alexandre Fishbein-Ouimette on the 4x800 (18th, 8:27.07). Fishbein-Ouimette also ran in the 3200 (23rd, 9:52.50).
The busiest Trojan was senior Tylor Seamans, the Class L high jump champ. He qualified for the Open in three events and placed sixth in the 300 hurdles (40.10), 15th in the 110 hurdles (15.42) and 18th in the high jump (5-10).
A State Open record fell Tuesday. That was in the girls 200, where sophomore Terry Miller of Bulkeley ran a 24.19. Danbury took the boys team title.
Area finishers in other events included, by school:
Southington: Senior pole vaulter Zach Burleigh, the Class LL indoor champ, placed ninth at 13 feet. Senior long jumper John Terray was 15th at 20-4½.
Cheshire: Distance runner Brendan Murray was fourth in the 3200 at 9:16.75. Fellow seniors Andrew Zebarth and Rachel Kaplan logged 19th-place efforts, Zebarth in discus (126-7) and Kaplan in the 800 (2:25.59).
Sheehan: The Titans had the largest local contingent in New Britain.
Phoenix, along with competing in the pole vault, joined Rayna Esch, Elisa Tolentino and Julia Mansfield on the 4x100 (20th, 50.53). Esch and Mansfield also ran on the 4x400 with Olivia Dubuc and Clarisse Aminawung (12th, 4:04.66).
In the individual 400, Dubuc placed 20th in 1:01.31. Tolentino landed a 33-3½ to place 15th in the triple jump.
Sheehan was also represented in the boys 1600 by Stephen Fengler (19th, 4:32.17) and in the girls 3200 by Lizzie Brown (23rd, 12:00.52). Sheehan’s 4x100 boys relay was disqualified on a lane violation.