Sacred Heart Greenwich’s track and field team was simply second to none at the FAA Championships held at Brunswick School on May 5 and May 9.

Sacred Heart won the team title at the FAA Track and Field Championships, totaling 171 team points at the eight-team meet. Greenwich Academy placed second in the team standings with a score of 114.66 points, followed by Hopkins School (83), Rye Country Day School (62) and King School (28).

The meet began on May 5, with all the field events taking place except for javelin. The meet started with the long jump and King School’s Anya Anderson got her team off to a flying start with a meet-best jump of 16-7 to score 10 points and put her team ahead early.

Sacred Heart’s Olivia Berkery would break her own personal-record by nearly half a foot at 15-1.75, sealing third place in the event for the Tigers, while freshman teammate Tiffany Abrahams also set a new personal-record jumping 14-9.75 to take sixth place.

Greenwich Academy’s Anaya Brown jumped into fourth place (15-1.25). At the throwing circles, Sacred Heart took a commanding lead in the meet with first and second-place finishes in the shot put for 18 team points. Freshman Grace Gapen won the FAA shot put title with a throw of 31-2. Tigers senior Sarah Augustine took second  (30-06) and senior teammate Jules Ingram placed fifth (22-8). The trio added 20 points to Sacred Heart’s team total, putting them in first place in the team standings with 27 points.

Gapen and Augustine placed first and sixth, respectively, in the discus for 11 team points for Sacred Heart, coached by Greg Domestico. Greenwich Academy earned 14 points in the discus with a second-place finish from Hannah Murray and third place performance for Clare Gannon. Greenwich Academy won the triple jump, thanks to Anaya Brown’s leap of 30-9 adding 10 more points to the squad’s team score.

However, the Tigers’ depth continued to carry them forward, as both Olivia Berkery and Audrey Ebeling scored for the Tigers with a second and fourth place finish, respectively for 12 more points. The real excitement of the night came as the high jump was underway and continued until dusk, as the bar just kept raising literally and figuratively. When the event was concluded, Sacred Heart senior captain Chelsea Hyland picked up 10 more points for her team with the highest jump of 4-6, before the officials called the meet due to darkness. Greenwich Academy received a fourth-place jump of 4-4 by Gigi Caldero and a three-way split for sixth place, including GA’s Alden Smith and Ella Zea and Masters’ Gabriela Olay. They each finished with a jump of 4-feet.

Sacred Heart had 60 team points following the first day of action at the FAA Championships, while Greenwich Academy had 32.66 points and Rye Country Day School totaled 21.

When the meet reconvened last Monday afternoon, the javelin event took place and Greenwich Academy made a strong push to narrow the gap between Sacred Heart. GA swept first, second and third place snagging 24 more team points. Greenwich Academy senior Cameron Brower threw a meet- best 93-3, teammate Hannah Murray placed second (85-4) and senior Ali Jaquiery came in third (74-11). Sacred Heart senior captain Charlotte Marvin placed  fifth with a throw of 69-1, while teammate Julia Randolph had sixth-place throw of 63-10. 

Sacred Heart’s young 4×100 relay team of sophomores Nova Ramseur-Moore and Victoria Hart and freshmen Tiffany Abrahams and Eva Wilkerson won the race, edging  Greenwich Academy’s Lucy Burdett, Anaya Brown, Mia Wilson and Cameron Brower. Greenwich Academy’s Maddy Lee comfortably won the 1500-meter race with an impressive time of 5:03.74. Freshman Maggie Finn and eighth-grader Laurie Starke of Sacred Heart finishing fourth and sixth, respectively in the 1500-meter run.

When the sprinters took the track again, Sacred Heart’s Nova Ramseur-Moore dominated in the 100-meter dash. She broke the school record which had stood since 2017 in the 100-meter trials (12.67). Ramseur-Moore then turned around and beat her own school record minutes later in the finals, winning the FAA 100-meter dash title with a blistering time of 12.55 seconds, good for first place place. Mia Wilson finished fifth for Greenwich Academy (13.33) fifth place finish.

The 100-meter hurdles were set on the track and Tigers sophomore Victoria Hart walked up to the starting line with the confidence of an athlete who had not lost a race all season. She crushed the school record that she set last year with a first place time of 16.23 to add 10 more points to Sacred Heart’s team score. Chelsea Hyland finished second, clocking in at 18.33 for eight more points. Greenwich Academy senior Lucy Burdett posted a fifth-place finish (19.73).

After spending most of the season sidelined with an injury, Sacred Heart senior standout Justine Hounsell returned to competition with her season debut in the 400-meter dash at the FAA Championships. The Cornell University-bound Hounsell bound phenom has run as fast as 56, seconds. She placed second in the race with a time of 1:00. Cameron Brower of GA earned the first-place medal in the 400-meter run, registering a time of 59.42, while Gators teammates Gigi Caldero and Ella Zea were third and fifth respectively.

Rye Country Day took top honors in the 800-meter, with sophomore Cleo Saltz crossing the finish line in 2:33.94. In a photo finish, Saki Tomita of Hopkins placed second (2:33.96), while Greenwich Academy’s Maddy Lee took third 2:39.52. Maggie Finn of Sacred Heart notched a  fourth place time of 2:42.31.

The 300 hurdles came back out and Sacred Heart’s dynamic duo of Victoria Hart and Chelsea Hyland would once again post first-place finishes. Hart placed first (49.38) and Hyland finished second (52.10) earning 18 points total for the Tigers. Sacred Heart extended its lead in the team standings in the 200-meter dash, taking first, second and sixth. Justine Hounsell beat all runners with a time of 26.20 seconds, Nova Ramseur-Moore had a second-place time of 26.38 and freshman Eva Wilkerson was sixth (28.24). King’s Anya Anderson finished third (27.44). Freshman Mia Wilson finished fifth for GA (28.18).  

As the final distance event came onto the track, Rye Country Day’s Cleo Saltz would once again control the tempo. The sophomore outlasted all runners with a first-place time of 11:54.33. Maggie Finn finished second for the Tigers (12:19.91). Greenwich Country Day’s Wylie Dell’Olio took third (12:28.60).

One of the meet’s most exciting races was the 4×400 relay. Hopkins would take the early lead and Sacred Heart sat in third behind Hopkins and GA. Greenwich Academy proceeded to win the relay race, which was anchored by Cameron Brower, recording a time of 4:27.61. A blink of an eye behind them was Sacred Heart, anchored by Eva Wilkerson, with a time of 4:27.66.

Overall, Sacred Heart would defend their FAA title with a decisive 57 point margin.

“Our success this year can be attributed to so many things,” Sacred Heart Greenwich assistant coach Ayo Hart said. “We are a large team that is not big just in absolute size, but in the quality of our quantity.  Our depth allowed us to score often twice in any given event. We also have a well-rounded team with scores coming from all of the disciplines – sprints, hurdles, distance, jumps and throws. In fact, we won eight of the 16 scored events and had multiple scorers in nine of the 16. We enjoyed great success and high performance from our seniors and upperclassmen, but we also are very fortunate to have incredible young freshmen and sophomores who will be back and who are eager to carry on the tradition of excellence that the upperclassmen have built.”