Windsor No. 1 in Girls Track Championship; Girls Basketball Teams Prepare for Tournament

The Windsor girls indoor track team won their first Class L state championship Friday in a thrilling finish.

Windsor trailed Darien 84-75 heading into the final event, but won the 4x200 meter relay to earn 10 points and overtake Darien, which had edged Windsor by 1.5 points in the championship meet last season.

Chalsea Clarke won the 55 meters and was second in the 300 meters. Brianna Allen won the 300 meters and Janae Wilson won the long jump and was third in the high jump. Each was also part of two of three winning relay teams as Windsor won the 4x200, 4x400 and 1600 Sprint Medley relays.

The contributions of Ashley Graves, Courtney Kearse, Natasya Rodriques and Medinah Nabadduka must not be overlooked either.

Attention has been paid to the stars of the team, and justly so, yet so often track championships are decided by something small. Friday was no exception.

Sarah Whalen, a junior competing in the shot put, was not seeded to score points in the meet, but she beat her qualifying throw by more than two inches and finished fifth (32 feet, three inches) and earned two points for the Warriors.

Championships are won by a combination of factors: big performances from stars -  Windsor got that from Clarke, Allen, Wilson and others - and something unexpected, which Windsor had, too, with Whalen's performance.

Other stellar performances from the region include:

• Fermi senior Rachel VanGilder earned all of her team's seven points with a third-place finish in the 55 meters and a sixth in the 300.

• East Catholic sophomore Grace Gothers knocked more than three seconds of her seed time to finish second in the 1,600 meters at the Class S meet Thursday. Gothers finished in 5:20.78.
• Windsor Locks junior Amanda Kulas finished sixth in the pole vault after clearing 8-feet. She qualified for the event with a vault of 7-feet, 6 inches.

Teams Ready For Tournament

Nykesha Sales, who is possibly one of the best women's basketball players ever to come out of Connecticut, never won a state championship at Bloomfield High School. The reason was simple: no matter how good any one player is, at the very top levels of competition, a defense can be designed to stop her.

This is why fans of Ellington should be encouraged by the team's winning streak.
The Knights defeated Granby, Coventry and Windsor Locks this week, but the way they did it was the impressive thing.

Everyone knows about Kelly Conley and she is still the Knights' main scoring threat. She led Ellington with 22 points in a victory over Granby that came after a 10-day layoff during which practice time was limited. This is the mark of a good player. Her team was sluggish with rust and she lifted them to victory.

The good news for those looking to see Ellington go deep in the Class M tournament is what comes after Conley.

Karlee Alves and Julie Gage have stepped in as reliable second and third scorers and Gage is especially effective inside. She had 19 rebounds against Windsor Locks. Meanwhile, Megan Milliken and Brittany Lemire have provided a defensive presence necessary.

Ellington hasn't won a state championship in girls basketball since 1997, when it was making its third straight appearance in the finals. It's always difficult to determine how one area of the state will stack up against another, but there doesn't appear to a clear-cut favorite in Class M.

Lewis Mills-Burlington, the top-seed if the tournament started today, is undefeated, but plays all of its games in the Berkshire League, which makes it impossible to evaluate its play on a state level.

Defending champion Kolbe-Cathedral (Bridgeport) is always dangerous, but Ellington can take strength from neighbor Tolland's performance in last season's tournament against runner-up Brookfield, which was a one-point loss.

Bottom line, the state tournament is unpredictable, but one way to be prepared is to be able to play different ways and have a number of different people who can contribute.

In addition to Ellington, other teams that ability and depth are:

• Tolland, which doesn't have the impressive winning streak, but has been toughened by loses to E.O. Smith, RHAM-Hebron and Manchester. Kristin Schatzlein remains the top scoring threat, but the other members of the tight-knit starting five, which includes Sarah Anishchik, Jessica Olson, Jenna Lovett, and Allison Gallo, are capable of lending key offensive support when needed. If Tolland's difficult schedule has proven anything it's that reserves such as Jacqui Foreman and Chelsea Domian are capable of contributing in big spots against tough opponents. Foreman and Domian were two of the main reasons Tolland played E.O. Smith to the wire.
• E.O. Smith, where coach Kirk Murad has led his team would be the No. 2 seed if the Class L tournament began today. The Panthers rely on Maggie Sundberg, of course, but can also get points, defense and rebounding from Murphy Murad, Morgan Stewart and Morgan Olander, among others.
• Suffield where they are hoping senior Stephanie Guminiak is fully-healed from an ankle injury, suffered early in the month against East Windsor, by tournament time. Suffield relies on a balanced attack and a free-flowing offense and the removal of a key cog at such a critical juncture would be difficult.