By Senior Correspondent Marty Ogden, Editing and Graphics by Ron Knapp

41st Dan O’Grady Relays

Danbury, HS, Danbury CT

RESULTS-Day 1

RESULTS-DAY 2

It's amazing what happens when you combine great athletes with great weather. Under sunny skies with a temperature of 60 degrees, records were broken left and right at the 41st edition of the Dan O’Grady Relays. 

The second event of the day on Saturday saw Windsor girls absolutely crush their own meet record in the 300m hurdles set last year by ten seconds. Three runners combined to run a time of 2:16.55. To make that type of performance requires an incredible amount of depth, but it certainly doesn’t hurt when one of your teammates sets the aCT state record in the process. 

Senior Kareema McKenzie crushed the field finishing three seconds in front of Jonathan Law’s Caden Simpson, herself a top six finisher at last year’s State Open. McKenzie’s individual time of 42.81 took down the record that was co-held by Jaliyah White of Hillhouse and Mariella Schweitzer of Joel Barlow of 43.18 set in 2015 and 2021. 

Not too long after McKenzie amazed the crowd, her teammates Tomari Gillespie (46.09) and Jordyn Williams (47.66) finished in 3rd and 4th places to clinch the overall win in the event. 

In the first event of the day an incredible distance medley was run featuring several of the top distance programs in the state. Simsbury held the early lead with East Lyme and Danbury hot on their tail. Entering the 1600m legs, Weston and E.O. Smith were a little further back. Weston’s Cameron Miles crept back into the lead pack by the end of his first lap and Smith’s Jack Mattingly joined the party with two laps to go, providing a great deal of drama. But Miles threw down a 1:01 closing lap and pulled out the win with Simsbury settling for second. Both teams broke their school records, went under Darien’s meet record and automatically qualified for New Balance Nationals with their times of 10:24.45 and 10:25.34. The 4:15 by Mattingly was the fastest 1600m split of the day while Miles ran a 4:17 leg. 

Windsor is obviously known as the premier sprint program in the state. Their school records are all over the CT all time top performance list and they have many of the short sprint relay records on the boys and girls side in the state. They came in with the state lead in the 4x100m but were surprised when Danbury crossed the line first in the 4x100m. Danbury had the #2 time in the state of 43.02 and were hoping to go under 43 seconds, but blew away all expectations when they broke their school and meet record with the time of 42.04. Windsor was just a tick off their season best, running 42.53 and also went under the meet record of 42.71. Danbury’s quartet of Tobeas Kelly, Dominic Atuahene, Nasir Ricketts and Machai Henry can now claim to have run the 4th fastest school record in state history behind only Windsor, Bloomfield and Wetherfield who have all gone under 42 seconds. Danbury will look to become the fifth school to accomplish that feat by the end of the season. 

Windsor got a measure of revenge in the 4x200m as the team of Taeshawn Berry, Maxim Copeland, Damion Sparrow and Jordan Crain not only defeated the Hatters, they crushed their own nine-year-old meet record running 1:27.49 and just missing their own state record of 1:27,03. No other CT school has broken 1:28 and this is at least the 3rd time the Warriors have gotten under that barrier. 

The girls 1600m SMR saw a terrific battle between Shelton and Branford. Shelton had a slight lead when New England 3200m champion Hannah Andrejczyk grabbed the baton about two seconds in front of Lucy Moran. While Andrejczyk has more titles under her belt, Moran is no slouch herself having run under 5 minutes to take 3rd at last year’s State Open. With 200m to go the pair were even and Moran pulled out into lane two on the final straightaway hoping to power away. But the Shelton runner’s efficient form maintained an ever so slight advantage down the entire finishing stretch which gave the Gaels the victory in a time of 4:10.64, the 11th fastest time in CT history. Branford settled for the silver medal in 4:10.92 the CT #14 All Time best performance. 

In the boys 1600m SMR, Lyman Hall took down Wetherfield’s meet record and just missed their school record from last year’s NBNO. Timothy Conklin, Domenico Colella, Michael Fisher and Thomas Conklin joined together to finish in 3:31.64.

While no relay record was set in the field events, there was a great battle in the girls javelin when state leader Maya Marin of Trumbull was slightly upset by New Canaan’s Lauren Smith who threw a PR of 125-4 on her final throw. Marin still has the state lead of 127-9 which will surely add to the anticipation as the pair are likely to meet at FCIACs, the State Open and New Englands with bigger titles up for grabs. 

O’Gradys is the first major team competition of the season with teams who do well at this meet often going on to further success at the conference, Class and Open levels. Danbury boys and Windsor girls both defended their titles from when the meet was last held in 2022. The host Hatters easily defeated Windsor by a score of 73- 49 with Shelton nine points behind in third. Meanwhile Windsor ladies won by a score of 69-60 with Newtown taking 3rd place with 53 points. Thirty-three boys teams scored and 29 girls programs took part in this large mid season relay event. 

In the division scores based upon school size, Danbury boys defeated Trumbull by a score of 112.5 to 71 to take the Large School title. Windsor outlasted Wethersfield 74-70 to win the Medium Division and Sheehan squeaked by Weston 91-88 to earn the Small school win.

The Girls Large school section was won by New Canaan with Danbury taking second place by a score of 104-82. Newtown grabbed the Medium school title 101 over Windsor with 87. Bloomfield edged out Sheehan for the Small school title 77-75. 

O’Gradys has some popular, but seldom run events such as the co-ed 8 x 100m relay and the highly anticipated 2000m steeplechase. But the newest event saw the most excitement among those in attendance was the Coaches 4x400m relay. Most coaches have had some level of success in the sport before they began coaching, but these once great athletes showed they still had what it took to get themselves around the track at a decent clip. The staff of Sheehan and Newtown went back and forth until head coach Dale Nosel threw in a sub-60 leg to bring bragging rights to Sheehan as they crossed the line in 4:14.77 with Newtown taking 2nd in 4:20.63. Nosel was aided by coaches Nick Douglas, Jack Somers and Lizzie Brown. Danbury outlasted Trumbull to grab the 3rd and 4th spots. 

Check out more results from relay invitationals held on Saturday!

Results from Dave Tetlow Relays Invitational at Ledyard HS CT

Results from 3rd Annual Ellington Invitational at Ellington HS CT

Visit the only site for the latest Connecticut High School State Records for Outdoor and Indoor Track & Field at My Track and Field Records.