Staples Running
Klein's Korner - Indoor Track & Field
Staples’ Track Wins 7th Straight Class Title
after Close Meet with Wethersfield

By  Andrew Klein

 

            Laddie Lawrence’s Boys’ Indoor Track team made history Thursday evening at the New Haven Track and Field Center when they became the first boys’ team to win seven consecutive CIAC State Class Championships. The team had been working diligently since the end of November to continue the legacy that their former classmates and older siblings left them, and they finally accomplished their goal after several difficult races with some of the strongest competitors in Connecticut.

            Before entering the meet, Lawrence and his captains scouted Class L competitors and realized that several schools had an opportunity to take the championship if Staples didn’t step it up with their relays and individual performances. As it turned out, points spread across several teams, and while Staples maintained the lead throughout the meet, there was no distinct winner until the last event was completed.

            Lawrence said attitudes and performances during all of the events were great and that a seventh straight win is simply incomprehensible.

            “I was impressed with the team focus and support that the athletes gave one another during the meet. To win a state championship there has to be an unselfishness and will to make sacrifice, which goes above and beyond each individual. This team demonstrated that completely.”

            The team was able to acquire points in several different events in order to finish with a final score of 68, beating runner up Wethersfield by 27. Staples scored at least once in twelve of the thirteen events that it had athletes competing in.

             While all athletes were contributors to the win, Lawrence said that senior captain Remi Ray was definitely the most impressive performer of the evening. Ray ran to tie his own school and meet records in the 600 (1:21.68), this time going head to head with senior Adam McLean of Wilbur Cross. He also broke his three week old school record and the seven year old meet record in the 300 (35.16). Ray finished the evening as the anchor to 4x400 relay in which he ran a 48.7 second split and made up the fifteen meters he was behind to win the race.

            “Remi provided us with great upfront strength but we cannot forget that there was some great support from athletes throughout the meet,” said Lawrence.

            The other strong performances were from the four relay teams, which were stacked with Staples’ elite mid-distance runners and sprinters. The 4x800 team led off the meet on a very positive note with ten points for first place (8:21.59). Senior captains Henry Kaplan, Jason Hanrahan, and Dane Lonsdale as well as junior Brendan Cristobal held off anxious Wethersfield and Wilton teams for the win. Kaplan later returned to anchor the Sprint Medley Relay and with the help of seniors Bryan Wrapp, Colin Nangle, and junior Christopher Lau, the team finished in third place overall (3:47.38).

            The 4x400 and 4x200 teams ended the meet and contributed a combined 18 points for their first and second place finishes. Since Wethersfield was very close to Staples in both relays, athletes and spectators held their breath until the 4x2 finished and the win was confirmed.

            Lawrence attests this win as well as the six previous state titles to the capable athletes that make up his program. He said, “We’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of outstanding young men come through the program over the last several years. The fact that we can win seven in a row is a real tribute to the caliber of kid that we have.”

            The next step for the team is the State Open Championship in which the first place finishers from each event in all of the four classes as well as the remaining fourteen best times or heights compete in a meet with widespread performances and points. Staples does not typically score among the top teams during Opens as its goal is usually to concentrate on the class meet, however, this year is different, and Lawrence was able to create one lineup that would be fairly strong for both Class and Opens.

            Staples will need to get its performances to their best level, and while thirty or forty points should be sufficient to win this meet, obtaining that much will prove very difficult against Connecticut’s best track and field athletes. If the team is able to accomplish the win, it would be the first time since 1991 that Staples took the Open title.
Fifth Seeded Boys’ Track Finishes First
 Against Strong Competitors at FCIAcs

By: Andrew Klein

 

            For the second consecutive season, the Staples Boys' Indoor Track team has overcome strong opposition in Fairfield County to win the FCIAC Championship title. This meet specifically proved the most difficult of the team’s wins as any of five schools could have taken home the title depending on their lineup and performances.

            “This meet was closer than usual because we didn’t have as much upfront strength as last year, but because the county is stronger this year,” said Coach Laddie Lawrence. “Four to five tough teams could have won when traditionally there are only two or three and a definite favorite. Since there were stronger teams, there was more balance with a team’s ability to score.

            Seeded fifth entering the meet, the team knew that it would really need to produce big performances in order to get ahead of rivals Darien, Danbury, Ridgefield, and New Canaan. What made winning most difficult was that the points scored with Staples’ upfront strength were negated by other teams in events where Staples lacked a strong athlete. The point leader switched several times throughout the day and no team was a clear winner until the final relay events. Staples pushed ahead and finished with 89 points and runner up Darien had 79.

            Senior captain Henry Kaplan said, “We’re all very proud about what we accomplished. It was a championship that was literally up for grabs between five teams and us winning shows several things. It shows how much we wanted it, it shows our strategical prowess, which we can largely attest to Laddie, and it shows just what we are capable of.”

            While several individuals contributed to the win, many of the points were garnered by the four relay teams, all of which finished in either first or second place, giving athletes an All FCIAC title. Lawrence pointed out that of the 40 possible points for the relay teams to score, they contributed 34.

            He said, “Our plan was to strengthen the relays and that worked well. When other teams went to strengthen their relays it opened up several doors for us to score in the individual events, specifically four people in the 600 and one in the 300.”

            Senior captain Remi Ray was the biggest individual contributor, giving ten points from both the 600 and 300 with times of 1:25.75 and 36.79 accordingly. While these performances significantly boosted Staples’s score, it was Ray’s teammates in the two events who made important contributions to the win.

            When opponents strengthened their relays, it allowed senior captains Will Caffery and Dane Lonsdale as well as senior Andrew Klein the opportunity to finish second (1:27.16), fifth (1:30.97), and sixth (1:31.71) in the 600. Then, junior Morgan Block was able to steal second place in the 300 (38.14), giving the team 39 combined points from the two events.

            Other big individual performances included senior Bryan Wrapp’s third place finish in the 50 meter dash (6.24), fifth place finishes from Kaplan in the 1000 (2:43.43), sophomore Christophe Esposito in the 1600 (4:44.59), junior Ben Bangser in the pole vault (11’0”), and senior Bobby Rosenthal in the shot put (43’6”). 

            It is arguable as to whether Staples lost some of its upfront strength since last year, which could be one cause of such a close meet. Kaplan said that while last year’s seniors contributed greatly to the score, the team upholds great depth this year.

            He said, “We have maintained a strong middle distance core which is a good thing to have strategically since those kids are capable of competing in several events. Utilizing [those] guys was the key component to our win.”

            Many of Staples’s big performances seen at the FCIAC meet returned Thursday February 9 to the State Class ‘L’ Championship at the New Haven Track and Field Center at Hillhouse High School. The team was running towards its seventh consecutive State Class title, however, results were not available for press time.

            Prior to the meet, Lawrence commented on the tireless effort that his seniors put in with him to scout the 28 other teams in the class and make a lineup.

            He said, “We’re running very sophisticated lineups that give us a lot of options. You can only set up one lineup for Class, Opens, and New Englands and it’s difficult to design one that is successful at all those levels.”

            Fitch, Conard, Wilbur Cross, Bristol Central, Hall, and Wethersfield were other strong teams that Staples needed to overcome in order to score well.

            “We are not thinking about ‘7-peat’,” Lawrence said. “We are just concentrating on doing well at this meet.”

 
Staples Protects Division Title
from Ridgefield for Seventh Consecutive Year

By: Andrew Klein

 

            Whenever the Staples track teams are in need of strong head to head competition to bring out the best of its runners, the Ridgefield Tigers consistently give the Wreckers a good run for their money using several top athletes that excel at the middle distance and distance events. This year, for the seventh consecutive time, Staples was able to slide past Ridgefield’s talented lineup to take the FCIAC Indoor Track Central Division Championship title.

            The county division meet was marked by several top performances from Staples, Ridgefield, and other Central Division schools including Norwalk, McMahon, Harding, and Fairfield Ludlowe. The two powerhouses, however, completely controlled seven of the fifteen events and dominated score-wise. It wasn’t until a surprise ending in the 3200 when Staples pushed ahead towards the final score of 160 to 108, the closest division meet that has been seen between these two teams in years.

            Coach Laddie Lawrence commented on the win and said, “We are obviously very pleased that we won this meet. It was very close in the early goings, but our 3200 runners provided a cushion along with our relay teams.” At the start of the meet was a brutally competitive 4x800 meter relay in which Staples’ juniors Zak Wendler, Jason Abed, Darius Naficy, and Keaton Christobal held onto Ridgefield, passed them, but then fought hard in the final straightaway as their competitor snuck back to beat them by three tenths of a second. This strong start for both teams energized the atmosphere as Wreckers realized they were going to need a big effort in order to take the trophy.

            Following the relay and the preliminary races for the dash and hurdles, Staples had pressure from the Ridgefield lineup in the 1000, which held its runners back from the top two scoring positions. For Tiger senior, Josh Kearns, it was the first of three events in which he was expected to take first place and did. Teammate Kellen Quigley followed suit in second, and pushed Staples’ senior captains Will Caffery and Jason Hanrahan into third and fourth place and Staples junior Brendan Christobal into fifth.

            “We knew Ridgefield had a few very strong front runners in the distance events and to some extent they utilized that,” said senior captain Henry Kaplan. “We have had a few setbacks in distance with injuries on some of our key guys, but we picked up some good points in the 1000, 1600, and 3200, and split up Ridgefield in a few places.”

            Luckily, Staples started to step out in the remaining events, but never fully escaped Ridgefield breathing down its neck. Senior captain Remi Ray finished first in the 600 and has yet to be defeated in the event in the past two years. Ray additionally took ten points for Staples with his top finish in the 300.

            As the meet neared conclusion, the 3200 began, and Staples initially looked to lose their point gain from the previous events since some of Ridgefield’s best runners were in two mile and were seeded in the top five places at the start. Surprisingly, Staples sophomore Casey August pushed passed Kearns at the head of pack and brought his teammates with him. Although August didn’t remain out front, junior Zach Kaiser stayed with Ridgefield’s top two runners and eventually broke them up. In the final two laps, junior Tyler Prince along with Kaplan, Kaiser, and August moved up and took second, third, fourth, and fifth, negating Kearns’ victory.

            After the event, Ridgefield had no chance at catching Staples, however, they will certainly make second attempts during the upcoming FCIAC Championship on February 4. Staples and Ridgefield are among five of the top teams in the league that could take the title along with Danbury, Darien, and New Canaan.

            “I am confident that our team can come out on top [at FCIACs],” said Staples Assistant Coach Kris James, who described the team’s typical success in past big meets, especially the Yale Invitational.

            Staples will be looking for its second consecutive county title after breaking Danbury’s reign last year.

            Lawrence said that while Darien is somewhat a favorite going into FCIACs, the team that positions its athletes into the best possible order will end up on top. He added that everyone will need to be mentally prepared; that staying focused in the meet will be the key.

                  James specifically mentioned sophomore Christophe Esposito who will likely have a breakthrough performance in the mile after weeks of steadily dropping his time and finishing in third place at the division meet. He is also excited to see what the captains are truly capable of this year.

            “I’ve had the privilege to be with these seniors for three years now and I have not only watched them develop into model athletes, but have made a great friendship with them. I highly anticipate that all of their performances will be successful.”

Staples Boys’ Track Shows Forceful Individuals and Relays at Yale Invite

Written by Andrew Klein
1/26/06

 

            Each Indoor Track season, Yale hosts a two day invitational for Connecticut and Mid-Atlantic high school teams at Coxe Cage, their track facility. With the Connecticut state class meets just three weeks later, the Yale Invite particularly benefits CIAC teams, as it allows them to see how their performances compare to others in their class. This year, Staples presented Class ‘L’ teams with several strong performances to watch out for as the state championship rapidly approaches.

            Last Friday was the first day of the invitational; the day which annually begins with the 300 meter run, but continues until completion with relay events. The boys’ first gun went off at 1:20 and 35.34 seconds later, senior captain Remi Ray sprinted through the finish line in a new school record of the 300. Ray broke the record set by Orville Bernard in 2004 by a couple of tenths of a second.

            Staples had six other athletes compete in the 300 before its 4x800 meter relay team dominated the competition. Seniors Bryan Wrapp, Ryan Bohling, Colin Nangle, and juniors Chris Lau, Morgan Block, and Greg Ruisi all ran solid threes and all finished sub 41. Following these performances, senior captains Henry Kaplan, Dane Lonsdale, Jason Hanrahan, and Will Caffery ran sub 2:05 splits in the 4x8 and finished in 8:15.48, which smashed the previous meet record by three seconds.

            “There were some good teams in our race, namely Danbury and Trumbull, so we knew we would have good competition,” said Kaplan. “I ran against some fast kids in the opening leg and I knew that if I stuck with them for the second handoff, we would have a good chance at winning.”

            To set a meet record at this point in the season is very impressive considering that the county and state championships haven’t begun yet. It shows that the runners gave a great effort and are ready to take on the coming meets.

            The 4x200 relay followed, and although they had a slightly weaker performance than what Coach Laddie Lawrence expected, they may be able to surprise some teams at the Class L championship.

            Wrapp and Bohling led off with similar times and seemed very strong, however the handoff to junior Alex Lebow wasn’t smooth and caused the team to lose a second, which was very crucial to their standings. Nangle anchored and closed in 23.3, which brought their final time to 1:36.44 for tenth place.

            Lawrence said, “The short relay would have done better but we messed up on the handoffs. I had expected them to run a 1:35 and I still think the potential is there to do much better.”

            Day one continued with a fantastic 4x400 meter relay, which took gold by a large margin of four seconds. Caffery led off in 53.5 and the splits went down to Ray closing in 48.6. Hanrahan broke out into first place and Lonsdale held off a hungry Trumbull team.

            “We felt comfortable going into the race,” said Lonsdale. “While we were standing in the pen with the three other top seeds, we realized that we were more experienced and faster than them so we knew we had a win in the bag.”

            Ray added, “Central got off to a good start but Caffery kept us in an ideal position and once we were in first we never looked back.”

            Caffery, Hanrahan, Lonsdale, and Ray all competed in day two of the invitational last Saturday along with Lebow and junior Brendan Christobal. Lebow ran well in the 55 meter dash (6.99 seconds), Lonsdale finished 35th in the 400 (54.36), and Hanrahan 48th in the mile (4:49.92).

            The 800 was the best race to see as Ray went after a third gold medal with teammates Caffery and Christobal. With two laps down and two to go, Ray sat towards the end of a long 800 line in lane one and decided to make his move. He cut into two on the backstretch, and caught the number two runner 100 meters later. In the final straight, he passed a struggling lead runner and finished in and incredible time of 1:54.42.

            “Remi had a career meet,” said Lawrence. “He not only broke the school record and got first place in the 300 on Friday, had a 48.6 split in the 4x4, but came back and broke the school record in the 800 and is currently ranked first in that event nationally.”

            As of today, Ray still holds this year’s national record; however, since he does not typically run the 800, Lawrence doesn’t expect that it will stay long, especially since the season is still early.

            All of the performances over the two days are exactly what Staples will need now that the championship season has begun. The first task will be to defeat Ridgefield, Norwalk, McMahon, Harding, and Ludlowe in the Central Division Championships on the 28th at 2 pm.

            Kaplan said, “We perennially win the Central Division meet so we expect to once again although it will be one of the most competitive Central Division meets that I know of in the past four years.”

            Lawrence said that while he saw several great performances at Yale, “We are not as complete a team as I’d like us to be at this stage in the game. There are still some events which haven’t been plugged yet and as well as attitudinal training adjustments to be made.”
Boys’ Track Gaining Speed Towards Championship Season

By: Andrew Klein

 

            In the third FCIAC qualifier at the field house, the Staples Boys’ team made improvements from the prior, weaker meet and demonstrated that many athletes will be serious competitors in the post season. As the final meet nears, the team still seeks more runners to qualify in their events in order to have stronger depth in the county and state championship meets.

            Staples competed against Westhill, Harding, Norwalk, St. Joe's, Ludlowe, and Warde; a somewhat easier crowd to handle compared to Ridgefield and Darien. While the team placed better in the top six scoring positions, there were still some obvious gaps where more strength and speed would be very beneficial to the important meets ahead.

            Coach Laddie Lawrence said, “We did much better in this meet than in the last one. More people cut their times and qualified. Even though we looked stronger, there are still spots in the lineup that need to be filled in order for us to be a big competitor in the coming county and state meets.”

            These spots seem to be predominantly in the sprint and field events, where upfront strength or depth may be lacking. To the contrary, the middle distance events are well covered by several proficient runners, who will still push towards faster times.

            Highlights of Saturday’s meet include junior Ben Bangser’s 10’6” jump in the pole vault, junior Alex Lebow, who long jumped 18’9.25”, senior captain Jason Hanrahan, who ran 2:46.8 in the 1000, and senior captains Will Caffery and Dane Lonsdale, who finished 1:29.2 and 1:29.5 accordingly in the 600.

            This weekend, top athletes will be racing at the 24th Yale Interscholastic Track Classic in New Haven, where many schools from Connecticut and parts of the Mid-Atlantic annually meet. While this does not count towards a record, athletes compete at their strongest level in order to give their team an idea of how they will score in the state class and open meets, which will take place within the next month.

            FCIAC qualifier four will also take place this weekend even though many upperclassmen will not be present. As usual, the meet will start at 10 a.m. on Saturday and finish when all events are completed.

Boys Indoor Track Shows Strong Start to Season,
Some Improvement Still Needed

By Andrew Klein

Staples continued its Indoor Track season last Saturday with its first meet since December 17. Athletes worked out in the field house over the holiday break and built up strength for this meet as well as the remaining FCIAC qualifiers with intentions of succeeding in the championship season beginning January 28.

            The team faced strong competition when it entered the meet and runners needed to work hard in order to keep rivals Darien and Ridgefield behind them. Other schools including Harding, Bassick, New Canaan and Westhill, had several athletes that took points away from Staples, and in the end, Darien pushed ahead. Since qualifying meets are not scored and schools do not keep win loss records during these meets, no official score was announced, but had it been calculated, Staples was only surpassed by a point.

            Coach Laddie Lawrence said, “I was a little disappointed in the results because we looked a little flat and we were not attitudinally focused.”

            Staples’ runners did not perform to their best ability, and while many were able to qualify for the championship meets, better feats have been seen on this track.

            “There were a number of people who had significant breakthroughs in their performances, and we are obviously looking for that to happen more in the future,”
said Lawrence.

            Some of Staples’ top scorers included senior Bobby Rosenthal who threw a personal best shot of 42’9”, senior captain Remi Ray, who ran 1:24.5 in the 600, and sophomore Christophe Esposito, who ran a significant personal record time of 4:53 in the mile.

            While Staples’ athletes stuck with Darien and Ridgefield, they need to be able to overcome them in order to show the state that they will be a top competitor at the championship meets, just as they have been for the past fifteen years.

            Senior captain Henry Kaplan said, “We are strong and we have known that. What we haven’t known is what we found out this past weekend, which is that we have serious competitors in our county and we have some holes to fill.”

            The team will continue pushing for individual qualifications for stronger depth at the central division and FCIAC championships. In the upcoming week, it will participate in the third qualifier and top athletes will be training for the Yale Invitational, which is to be held on January 20 and 21.