On Wednesday May 29th the Bunnell Bulldog boys track and field team took to the road
traveling to Middletown High School where the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference
presented the 2019 Class MM Championships.
It would be an event suspended due to severe rains that hit the area. Heavy rains and cool
temperatures pretty much described the entire outdoor track season this year, so performing in
these conditions was nothing new for the State’s top athletes.
For the Bulldogs, they would send several athletes to compete and succeed in this year’s
edition of the Class MM finals.
In the 100 meter dash preliminaries only one-hundreths of a second would separate first place
and the twelfth spot. The top eight qualify for the finals.
Hillhouse’s Neal Eley, by a small margin, came in first at 11.09. He just beat Bunnell’s top racer
Christ N’Dabian at 11.11. Fellow Bulldog Marquise Lawrence was Bunnell’s next racer in ninth
place at 11.52. Twelfth place was taken by Bunnell’s Alex Mosley at 11.83
In the 100m finals, Eley and N’Dabian would lock horns once again the entire race. Eley came
in just ahead of N’Dabian with both racers pushing better times than in the preliminaries. Eley
at 10.91. N’Dabian at 11.06. Both racers now move on to the CIAC State Open meet.
Meanwhile, over in the long jump area Bunnell Junior Tyreek Smith was having a competitive
day of his own by holding down the number two spot in the preliminary rounds. Smith went on
to qualify for the finals with jumps of 20-02.75 feet and 20-00.05 feet. Hillhouse’s Eley held the
lead at 21-06.50. Smith saved his best leap for the finals with a jump of 21-00.50 feet.
It was Berlin’s Alexander Halkias taking over the number two spot in the finals with a final jump
of 21-05.00.
The third place finish for Smith qualifies him for the CIAC State Open.
That’s when the heavy rains came and officials were forced to suspend the championship meet
until this morning at 10:00. The action now moving over to New Britain’s Willow Brook Park.
When the meet resumed, a determined N’Dabian was ready for the 200 meter dash. This time it
would be Hillhouse’s Deshaune Poole and N’Dabian shoulder to shoulder at the finish line. The
top spot went to Poole at 22.57. N’Dabian at 22.85. Both Poole and N’Dabian have raced
against each other for years now. They both now move on to face each other, at least one
more time, now as seniors, in the CIAC State Open.
Lawrence added a point, in the 100m dash, to the Bunnell team tally finishing eighth at 23.57.
In team scoring Bunnell finished in the tenth spot out of twenty-eight teams.
Bunnell will send both Smith and N’Dabian to the State Open on Monday June 3rd at New
Britain’s Willow Brook Park for a 1:30 start.
