Granby Memorial Bids Farewell to Track With Strong Performance

The track and field at was opened in 1980, and Dennis Lobo, the current head coach the Bears’ girls track team, recalled the very first meet hosted at the school.

“I’m the only person around here - at least who’s still coaching - who saw the first meet on the track and saw the last meet on the track,” Lobo said of the now-dilapidated facility Thursday. “It’s had a lot of great runners and participants of track and field throughout the years. But I won’t be sorry to see it go.”

The track and field - which was constructed with local labor, according to Lobo - played host for one last time Thursday afternoon, as the Bears boys and girls teams took on their East Granby and Canton High counterparts.

A new facility, which will include a brand new track and an artificial turf field, will be constructed and opened hopefully for the fall 2013 season as part of a referendum that was passed in January.

“It will be nice to see a new facility here,” Lobo, who is in his 37th year of coaching at Granby Memorial, said. “A facility that the town can use for a number of things. It’ll be second to none for a school our size.”

All that was left was for that one last dual meet, which the Granby Memorial girls swept and the boys split, with Canton prevailing over the Bears and the Bears defeating East Granby.

The results are as follows:

Boys:

Canton 84, Granby Memorial 66

Granby 114, East Granby 31

Canton 121, East Granby 21

Girls:

Granby Memorial 115, Canton 30

Granby Memorial 130, East Granby 20

Canton 79, East Granby 45

Granby Memorial’s Marianna Sticca won the high hurdles and the long jump, while Heather Longley won the shot put and the discus. Both the 4x100 and 4x800 relay teams won their respective races for Granby Memorial. Anna Fede also qualified for the state Class M meet with a personal best throw of 85’1”.

The Bears go into the NCCC meet Tuesday with a record of 11-2.

“They’re a great bunch of girls and we have an excellent senior class,” Lobo said. “Our strengths are in our distance running and throws.”

Lobo said that athletes like Michele Guttermuth (hurdles), Caroline Wutka (jumps), Meg Almagro (distance), Ashley Piccirillo (distance), Alexa Cipkas (distance) and Sara Eckhardt (distance) have been instrumental to the team’s success. Jaime Moffa has also had a successful year in the pole vault.

“We’re having a good year,” Lobo said. “It’s a well-balanced team.”

On the boys side, Dan Clark, who has been stellar all year, won the 110 and 300 hurdles, Alex Uhl remained undefeated this year in the pole vault and also won the long jump and Zach Balboni won the high jump and the triple jump. By clearing 5’8”, Balboni also qualified for the state meet. The boys took 33 out of a possible 36 points in the throwing events.

“Canton has been undefeated for the last three years,” head coach Bob Casey said. “They were counting the score to see where they were. It was more competitive than the score seems to show. The kids did a terrific job.”

The boys team finished the regular season with a record of 10-3.

East Granby Steadily Improves

Co-head coach Dave Mendrala said that the Crusaders track and field programs were in good health with the highest turnout ever with 43 athletes that came out for both the girls and boys teams.

“Good season so far,” Mendrala said. “We’ve had 24 of the 43 qualify for the NCCCs, and of that, eight that have qualified for states.”

Mendrala said that the hurdling crew is the strength of the team, with Kendall Comstock and Caroline Eastman, who have qualified for both the high and low hurdles for the states. Matt Plante qualified for the high jump, Jehandrae Grant and Chris Grabinsky has done well with in the shot put and the throwing events.

“We have a lot of kids who are not at the state level, but who qualified for the NCCC meet and we have a lot of underclassmen,” Mendrala said. “If they stay around for all four years, we should be in pretty good shape.”

Mendrala said that he doesn’t focus too much on his team’s record because the Crusaders don’t have entrants in several events, such as the pole vault or 4x800 relay.

“We’re probably losing 27 points at every meet because of event where we don’t even field,” he said.

Canton Boys Undefeated, Girls Improve

The Canton boys remained undefeated and atop the NCCC with a convincing win over the Bears. Among the top performers were the 4x100 (Tim Gavin, Keith Wilson, Colin Martin and Jeff Lochner) and 4x800 (Jake Neely, Jimmy Spatcher, Jon Cahill and Tyler Fitzpatrick) relay teams, which won their respective events.

Not bad for a team that was seemingly gutted due to graduation.

“We pretty much lost all but one person who scored in the state meet last year return,” head coach Tim O’Donnell said. “We added a lot and made a lot of progress this year. … They’re working hard.”

With a 6-7 record, the girls have matched the total number of victories they have had in the last four years combined, O’Donnell said.

On Thursday, Alex Martin won the 100 meter dash.