Last Saturday, the Morgan outdoor Track and Field team competed in the Shoreline Conference finals. Many of our Morgan athletes were able to achieve and accomplish many of the goals they set out for themselves at the beginning of the season including our Morgan girl’s team finishing 5th overall and the boy’s team finishing 10th.
The girl’s team put up an impressive score of 57 points overall, putting them in 5th place out of the 12 teams there despite having the smallest roster of girls out of all the other schools in the shoreline at 12 girls total. Junior captain Addy Reed dominated across both of her events, claiming first in the 2-mile and second in the mile. She was able to beat her own previous school record time in the mile with a time of 5:13.08. Destiny Rehberg saw first place across both of her main events in shot put and in javelin with a new PR of 114’.
Senior captain Olivia Ruotolo, after qualifying for the 100m hurdle finals in the prelims, put up a good fight in the finals and was able to claim 3rd place. Freshman Isabella Santello competed across three events, and to start the day she ran with the 4×100 meter relay team. The team placed 9th overall which wasn’t what the team wanted, but that didn’t stop Bella later in the day as she was able to get 3rd place in the 100m dash, with a new pr time of 13.23. Additionally, in the 200m, she saw a new pr time of 27.10. Demi Rehberg also did a good job coming in 4th place overall for Discus.
On the boy’s end, while they were only able to get a total of 12 points putting them in 10th place overall some individuals were still able to make some notable achievements. Senior Captain Michael Fusco was able to achieve one of his season goals in breaking the 200-meter dash record at Morgan previously held by Casey Sullivan with a time of 22.75 back in 2014. Fusco Broke it with a time of 22.59.
Freshman Michael Bowker was able to grab a medal in the mile race, putting him in 6th place overall, and also broke his previous mile time record with a time of 4:35.59. Bowker was faced with an important decision of not racing in his second main event, the 800-meter race, so he would have more recovery time for his 4×400 team and give them a better chance of making it into states as it was their last chance to get a qualifying time that day.
“I decided to drop the 800m after I got a chance to talk with Fusco. He believed I could be beneficial to the team and without me our chances would be slim, considering it was his last year on the team, I was determined to get us to states.”
The boys’ 4×400 team was able to just barely able to get a qualifying time during their race to put them into states In their heat, they were racing against Westbrook and Valley when it came down to handing the baton off to the final relay member the anchor leg, Michael Fusco, the only thoughts going through his mind was to run as fast as possible so he can race again at states.
The team now has to change gears and focus on their next upcoming meet at states. Previously the boy’s team competed in the CIAC Class M State championship while the girls competed in the Class S championship. This year both the girls and boys will be competing at the CIAC Class S on Monday, June 2 at Veterans Stadium Willowbrook Park, CT US.
