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Atluru, Sbabo Take First Place at States

Junior Sonia Atluru and senior Nick Sbabo both emerged triumphant from the Class L Indoor Track State Championship as Atluru won the high jump with Sbabo taking first place in the 55-meter hurdles.

Atluru hit the trifecta by prevailing at her third straight postseason meet and doing so in dramatic fashion at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven on Feb. 12. Atluru and second-place competitor Sydnee Spruill of Fitch both reached a peak of 5 feet-2 inches in their initial high jump attempts, after which Atluru won a tiebreaker jump-off to claim the victory. In the jump-off, the bar was lowered until either Atluru or Spruill cleared it and the other missed. Because she was seeded lower, Spruill went first each time. She cleared her first seven attempts, forcing Atluru to match seven times, which she did. But in round No. 8, Spruill missed at 5-1, Atluru coasted over the bar, and she walked away with state gold.

“I had to regain myself each time she made it and get it together because I had no choice. When she missed, I was so excited because I knew I was close to winning and I came there to win. Coach [Marc Celmer] told me to do my best to win and that was my intention at the meet,” Atluru said. “It feels amazing, especially since this is my first indoor season jumping. I brought home first place and it’s kind of an unreal experience for me.”

Meanwhile, Sbabo ran a personal-record time of 7.91 seconds to capture first in the hurdles for the second time this postseason, besting runner-up Jevon Smith of Bristol Central, who ran 8.0 seconds.

“My start was pretty bad and I was behind for the first two hurdles, but then I caught up in the third and got the lead over the last two,” said Sbabo, who qualified for the State Open with Atluru. “It felt pretty good to win going in as the top seed with the other kid [Smith] just 0.5 seconds behind me. I was 0.4 seconds away from the school record of 7.87, which I want to get to.”

Also for the girls, senior Maria Chiaia took second in the shot put at 34-0¼ with sophomore Sarah Vanacore in third (33-2¼). Other point-scoring performances were delivered by the 4x800 relay of sophomore Elise Symon, junior Erica Salvo, sophomore Maily Tran, and senior Alexandra Ford (3

^rd

, 10:18.54); along with Symon in the 1,600 (6

^th

, 5:26.17); senior Abby Tantorski in the 300 (8

^th

, personal record of 44.47); and Ford in the 600 (8

^th

, 1:46.91). The 4x8 broke the school record of 10:30.03, which had been held by Julia Morgillo, Ashley Bernardo, Jessica Hentz, and Susan Zabrocky. Symon additionally broke her own 800 split record of 2:28 and her 1,600 record of 5:28.01. North Haven’s girls finished in sixth out of 21 squads with a total of 31 points. This was the highest finish at a state meet for the girls in Coach Celmer’s 10-year tenure.

Others who posted points for the boys were senior Patrick Vanacore in the shot put (3

^rd

, 49-4¼) and junior Shane O’Connor in the shot put (8

^th

, 43-9½), senior Chris Parisella in the long jump (4

^th

, 20-9½) and 55 hurdles (6

^th

, 8.31); sophomore Omar Gebril in the 600 (6

^th

, 1:27.05) and 300 (7

^th

, 37.87); plus junior Ryan Brennan in the 1,600 (8

^th

, 4:36.16). Brennan’s time broke his own school record of 4:36.76. These performances helped the Indians’ boys score 22 points to place seventh out of 21 teams.