Fairfield Ludlowe competes at FCIAC indoor track meet

The Fairfield Ludlowe boys' indoor track team followed their FCIAC Western Division championship with a sixth-place finish at Thursday's FCIAC championships.

The team brought home a total of 17 medals, with three of four relay teams finishing in the top six and five individuals joining them as medalists, many beating their season's best efforts and setting five new Ludlowe records in the process.

"It was definitely our best performance in an FCIAC meet since the schools split," said Falcon boys' head coach Dave Nulf. "I think it was a new experience as an indoor track program for the kids to be able to be at that level in so many different places. We've had individuals who have done well, but I think we just had more depth as a competitive program this year and that's been a lot of fun."

The 4 x 800 team of Brian Christian, John Grant, Jack White, and Mike Frasco started the fun with a fourth place finish, less than a half second out of third.

Setting the tone for individual efforts, co-captain Tom Claiborne improved on his fourth place seed and lopped 3.5 seconds off his seed time, breaking his own school record for a third place finish in the 1000.

Nick Cortelessa, who would medal every time he stepped into competition, finished the 600 in fourth place by cutting three seconds off his season's best time and breaking his own school record. He also took third in the high jump, missing second place and all-FCIAC honors only by the number of attempts.

"I'm pretty happy about the 600," said Cortelessa. "I've been definitely working toward that. I'm just going to keep training like I've been training and hopefully it'll pay off.

"I think my approach on the high jump has been a little inconsistent this year, so I'm going to try to work on that a little bit," Cortelessa continued, "but beside that, I'm just going to stick to what I've been doing."

Co-captain Austin Henry followed Cortelessa across the 600 finish line, lopping over two seconds off his season's best time, good for a sixth place finish. Mike Frasco earned sixth place in the 1600, improving on his tenth seed, beating his season's best time by nine seconds and setting a new school record.

Claiborne anchored the 1600 sprint medley team which included Henry, Mike Cronin, and Evan Jacobs. Leading up to of the most exciting finishes of the day, Claiborne trailed crosstown rival Mike Robb by about a stride at the final turn.

"At the time, I didn't realize that we were fighting for sixth place, the last medaling spot," said Claiborne. "I'm not going to lie. I was a little scared of Mikey Robb's kick coming off that curve. He's a great runner and I was just excited to be able to run with him and finish the race."

Claiborne ran with Robb and finished .12 seconds ahead, earning the Falcon foursome a splash of sixth place medals, along with a new school record.

Tyler Schwartz finished seventh in the 300-meter dash, .40 seconds away from a sixth-place medal. Frasco cut 11 seconds off his 3200 season's best time, finishing ninth, out of medal range but nine places ahead of his seed position, setting his second school record.

Seeded seventh, the Falcon 4 x 400 relay team of Claiborne, Henry, Cortelessa, and Schwartz ended the day by blasting their way into fourth place medals by cutting over four seconds off their seed time.

"We've been on this team together for two or even three years and we've handed off to each other in a bunch of races, 4 x 200, 4 x 400, whatever it is, so we as a team know our handoffs," said Henry.

"We've been excited about that race all season," Henry continued, "and we got mentally prepared before it. We had Nick give us the big prep speech and we all brought our spikes and our best game today."

The Ludlowe girls brought home only one medal but a pile of strong performances.

Sophomore distance specialist Heather Moriarty battled Trumbull's Danielle Klein for the lead in the 3200, then ended in third place. The young runner will take Thursday's lessons with her to tomorrow's state Class L meet.

"We tried to pace with each other all the way through the two-mile race," said Moriarty, who had anchored the Falcon 4 x 800 relay earlier in the meet. "We were both kind of burned out because we had kind of tough races before."

"[At states] I'm not going to lead at the beginning," said Moriarty. "I have a tendency to go out too fast and just burn out. I'll take the front at the end of the race."

Moriarty will have unexpected company at the state meet. A scheduling fluke put Marissa Klein in the fast heat of the 3200 and she responded by cutting 23 seconds off her personal record and earning a ticket to the Class L championships.

Moriarty along with Lily Murphy, Catherine Rooney, and Maura Rooney barely missed an earlier medal as the Ludlowe 4 x 800 relay team finished seventh.

A number of other Falcons missed medals but still finished in the top ten.

Sydney Kay finished ninth in the 55-meter dash, and Elise Perazzini finished ninth in the 300 meter dash. Liz Brand and KC McAuliffe tied for ninth in the high jump, while Maureen Dougherty the school record holder in the long jump, took eighth place in that event.

"We didn't have as many girls qualify for the meet as I thought we might, but I think that for the most part, we ran well," said Falcon head coach Amanda Parrish. "We ended up having several near-medal place finishes, which is always frustrating, like the 4 x 800 and the long jump, but a lot of girls did personal bests. I am happy. Yes, definitely."