Greenwich utilized a balanced and deep lineup which enabled the Cardinals to win all three relay events and score many more points with high placings in individual events to win the team title by 13 points at the 2025 FCIAC Boys Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Greenwich winning its sixth FCIAC championship in school history, seniors Magnus Manley and Charles Lovett maintaining the tradition of great Ridgefield distance runners, and New Canaan winning the 4×800 relay at the New England Championships and Class L state championship meet highlighted the boys outdoor track and field season.
David Akinnubi won the high jump and placed high in all three jumping events while Cameron Williams won the 400-meter race and anchored Greenwich’s victorious 4×400 relay team to lead the Greenwich Cardinals to their third FCIAC championship in the last four seasons since 2022.
Greenwich scored 140 points, runner-up Danbury had 127 and defending champion Ridgefield placed third with 118. Trumbull was fourth with 55 points and Fairfield Ludlowe completed the top five with 39.
The teams which finished in places 6-8 were Staples (34 points), Norwalk (29), and Bridgeport Central (27). Fairfield Warde and New Canaan each scored 24 points to tie for ninth place.
Lovett was the only athlete who won two events while his Ridgefield teammates Manley and sprinter Kieran Boyle, Akinnubi of Greenwich, Danbury’s Tobeas Kelly and Rysaiah Saunders, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Owen Brum, and Fairfield Warde’s Luke Kieffer each had one victory and a runner-up finish in their respective individual events at the FCIAC championship meet.
Manley consistently lowered his 1,600 times in postseason meets and he and Lovett teamed up with Trevor Fuller and Aidan Nelson to place eighth in the 4×800 relay at the New Balance Nationals Outdoor 2025, a high school national championship meet.
In addition to the big points provided by Akinnubi and Williams, there were plenty more Greenwich Cardinals who either placed high in individual events or were on one of those three winning relay teams at the FCIAC championship meet.
Akinnubi cleared 6 feet, 2 inches to win the high jump and the senior also placed second in the triple jump (42 feet) and fifth in the long jump (19-11½).
Akinnubi had four successful high jump performances in postseason championship meets. Akinnubi cleared his season-best 6-6 in the high jump when he placed second at the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference State Open.
Akinnubi also placed second (6-4) at the CIAC Class LL state championship and he cleared 6-5 to finish fourth at the New England Championships.
Williams’ winning time of 49.31 in the 400 was half of a second faster than runner-up Timothy Keane of Trumbull (49.81) at the FCIAC championships. Williams won the 400 with a clocking of 49.11 at the Class LL state championship meet and then lowered his time to 48.78 when he placed fifth at the State Open.
Coach Christopher Wallace utilized 11 Cardinals to fill the combined 12 spots for Greenwich’s three winning relay teams at the FCIAC championships as Jack Hannafin was the only Cardinal on two of them.
Hannafin and Williams ran the last two legs after Daniel Ciccarelli and Ryan Newcomb covered the first two on that 4×400 relay team which won with a clocking of 3:28.13 which was 1.05 of a second faster than runner-up Danbury (3:29.18).
Hannafin also ran the third leg on the winning 4×100 relay team (42.96) which included Caleb You, Daniel Silver and William Tulloch and finished 0.68 a second ahead of runner-up Danbury (43.64).
The quartet of Benjamin Hayes, William Monaco, Chase Nizieski and Benjamin Webster (8:17.42) won the 4×800 relay by 2.75 seconds over runner-up Brien McMahon (8:20.17).
Greenwich’s Jacob Mobley scored 14 big points when he was runner-up in the discus (144-7) and third in the shot put (46-9¾).
Three Cardinals who were members of winning relay teams also scored points in individual events.
Silver placed third in the 100-meter dash (10.96) and fourth in 200 (22.5), Newcomb was runner-up in the 800 (1:56.43), Tulloch took third in the 400, while You was fifth in the 100 and sixth in the 200.
Also for Greenwich: Thomas Donovan placed third in the triple jump, fourth in the 110 hurdles and fifth in 300 hurdles; Christopher Pierre was third in the 110 hurdles; while Timothy Smith was fourth in the 300 hurdles.
Greenwich’s third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishes provided valuable points because Danbury presented a formidable challenge in finishing just 13 points behind Greenwich.
Kelly and Saunders each won an event and were runner-up in another event to combine to score 36 team points while Machai Henry and Daniel Nalbatian combined to score 32 points as they each had a victory and a third-place finish to lead the lead Danbury’s runner-up Hatters.
Kelly won the long jump (22-1¼) by an inch and a quarter and was runner-up in the 200 (22.34)
Henry won the 100-meter dash (10.84) and placed third in the 200 (22.37). Nalbatian won the shot put (49-8¼) and was third in the discus (135-11).
Saunders and Fairfield Ludlowe’s Brum each won one hurdles race and placed second behind the other in the two very close hurdles races.
Saunders won the 110 hurdles in 14.55 and Brum (14.63) was just 0.08 of a second behind. Later in the meet Brum (39.66) won the 300 hurdles and Saunders (39.87) was just 0.21 of a second behind Brum.
Danbury’s Trenton Frasier placed second in the javelin (135-08).
Lovett scored 20 points with his two victories as he, Manley and Boyle combined to score 56 of Ridgefield’s 118 points to lead the Tigers to third place.
Lovett won the 800 with a time of 1:55.79 and 1,600 with a 4:20.67. Manley had a time of 4:21.97 when he was runner-up behind Lovett and 1,600 and Manley got his victory in the 3,200 (9:36.77).
Boyle won the 200 (22.17) by 0.17 of a second over Danbury’s Kelly after Boyle was runner-up in the 100 dash (10.86) by the very slim margin of 0.02 of a second behind Henry of Danbury.
Carson Bloechle was another FCIAC champion for Ridgefield as he won the javelin by 13 feet, 5 inches with his throw of 149-1.
The Tigers racked up big points in the three longest races at the conference championship meet as Fuller was runner-up in the 3,200 (9:38.79) after he placed third in the 1,600 (4:22.32), and Nelson was fourth in both the 800 (1:56.88) and 1,600 (4:22.65).
Fairfield Warde’s Kieffer, who was among the seven conference athletes with a victory and runner-up finish at the FCIAC championships, won the discus (156-6) and placed second in the shot put (49-5½).
Zeyphr Yeager of Wilton was the FCIAC champion in the pole vault (13-6) and Westhill’s Nate Elsner vaulted 13 feet to place second.
The other field events FCIAC champion was Bridgeport Central’s Stan Fleurant in the triple jump (42-3).
Mason Sweeney of Trumbull placed second in both the high jump (6-0) and long jump (21-0) at the FCIAC championships.
When Ridgefield’s Lovett, Manley, Fuller and Nelson placed 1-4 in the 1,600 race at the FCIAC championships, that race served another purpose in contributing to their racing endurance base for that high school national championship meet a few weeks later when they teamed up on the 4×800 relay team and finished eighth with a time of 7:38.30 at the New Balance National Outdoors 2025 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
Manley won the 1,600-meter race in two state championship meets in between those FCIAC and national championship meets. Manley won the CIAC Class LL 1,600 with a 4:19.59 and then he ran 7.16 seconds faster when he won the State Open in 4:12.43.
Ridgefield was the runner-up team at the State Open as the Tigers scored 38 points and were just two points behind champion East Lyme. Bloomfield placed third with 34 points.
Lovett (runner-up in the 800 with a 1:52.67), Bloechle (third place, javelin, 160-6), Boyle (fourth, 200, 21.82; and fifth, 100, 10.95), and Fuller (fourth, 1,600, 4:16.09) all contributed to Ridgefield’s runner-up finish.
New Canaan was another school which had a great 4×800 relay team.
Senior Spencer Paine, juniors Ryan Monohan and Quinn Kilkenny, and senior Ryan Boulanger, in that order, teamed up to win at the Class L state championship meet with a time of 7:59.04.
One week later they lowered that significantly with their school-record runner-up time of 7:50.26 at the State Open and then they had a winning time of 7:51.38 at the New England Championships.
And three of those New Canaan Rams were not done yet. Paine was unable to compete in the Nationals, so Ryan Jordan filled in for him and joined Monohan, Kilkenny and Boulanger.
Those four Rams placed 15th and set the new school record of 7:45.48 as Boulanger had a sizzling anchor leg time of 1:53.82.
So, as it ended up, the FCIAC had two teams among the 15 fastest 4×800 relay teams at the New Balance National Outdoors 2025 — Ridgefield (eighth place, 7:38.3) and New Canaan.