Behind two first-place finishes from senior Kate Friedman, the Greenwich High School girls track and field team made its mark at the recent FCIAC Championships held at Danbury High School, finishing third in the team standings.

The Cardinals finished with a total of 72 team points, good for third place in the 15-team FCIAC Championships. Ridgefield earned the FCIAC team championship with 126.5 points and Danbury was the runner-up (81 points). Friedman won the FCIAC title in the 1600-meter run, crossing the finish line in a personal-record time of 5:01.74.

Ava Malagisi of Ridgefield placed second in the 1600-meter race, posting a time of 5:03.04. Friedman also finished first in the 3200-meter run at the FCIAC Championships. She registered a winning time of 11:03.83. Malagisi of Ridgefield was the runner-up (11:05.09).

“Kate Friedman won the mile and 3200, which is a great sweep for the year,” Greenwich girls track and field coach Peter Watson said. “She was also the cross country FCIAC champion in the fall. “She joined the team as a junior. She was a softball player in the spring, so to have someone come from softball to win two events at the FCIAC track meet is really cool.”

Greenwich also received a championship performance from Kayah Armstrong in the high jump at the FCIAC Championships. A freshman, Armstrong won the long jump with a jump of 5-00.00.

“She was the only one to jump five-feet,” Watson noted.

Sophia Riche finished third in the 100-meter hurdles for Greenwich at the FCIAC finals, posting a time of 15.60 seconds. Olivia Robles of Danbury won the race in 15.20. Riche also had a fifth-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles (47.64). Robles was the winner in (45.75). The Cardinals placed third in the 4×800 meter relay (9:58.64), which was won by Ridgefield (9:40.78).

Greenwich’s Gemma Hardwick took fourth in the 400-meter race in 1:01.12. Kaitlyn Taylor of Danbury won the race with a time of 59.77. Margaret McCooe was fifth in the 800-meter race for GHS, clocking in at 2:27.05. Danbury’s Julia Blake was the winner in 2:16.50.

Also for the Cardinals at the FCIAC championship meet, Theresa Knuth finished third in the shot put (33-05). Knuth was also fifth in the discus (86-03). Riche had a fourth-place finish for the Cards in the triple jump (34-03.00).

“We were in third place as a team, which was a good result,” Watson said. “It was the same place we were last year. It’s good to have that consistency and good to be one of those top teams going for the win. Going into the meet, we knew we had the potential to place well.”

Greenwich competes in today’s CIAC Class LL Track and Field Championships, held at New Britain.

“We want to get as many people as possible qualified for the State Open,” Watson said of one of the team’s goals at the Class LL championship meet. “This year, instead of taking the top five for each class, they take the top three and then the next best 10 overall among all the classes. So, we’re hoping that will benefit us. If we do that, I think we’ll do well as a team. We’d like to finish in the top five there. There’s a lot of really strong teams coming from the center part of the state, so hopefully, we can stay competitive with them.”