The Greenwich High School girls outdoor track and field program had one of its best seasons ever as the Cardinals won the FCIAC championship and a state championship in the same year for the second time in school history since the first time 45 years ago.
Greenwich’s two team titles and New Canaan’s field events thrower Lauren Smith finishing her fabulous career with another great season highlighted a successful girls outdoor track and field season for FCIAC athletes and teams.
Greenwich scored 125 points to win the 2025 FCIAC Girls Outdoor Track and Field Championships by 23 points on the Saturday of May 24 at Danbury High School. Defending champion Ridgefield was runner-up with 102 points.
Smith led New Canaan’s Rams to third place. She scored 30 of their 90.5 points as a Triple Crown winner who placed first in the javelin, shot put and discus by comfortable margins.
Wilton placed fourth with 78 points. The other six teams in the top 10 were Trumbull (51.5 points), Staples (45), Fairfield Ludlowe (40.5), Norwalk (29), St. Joseph (28) and Danbury (27).
Nine days after Greenwich won the FCIAC championship for the first time since 1984, coach Peter Watson’s Cardinals won the CIAC Class LL Girls Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the school’s first state title since 1983.
Greenwich copped the state Class LL crown with 105 points, 10 more than runner-up Glastonbury. Ridgefield placed fifth with 50.5 points.
Sophia Riché, Sophie Passalacqua, Eliana Daplyn, Margaret McCooe, Gemma Hardwick, Theresa Knuth and Nina Silver combined to lead Greenwich to both team titles.
Riché scored 26 points in the FCIAC championships with a victory and two runner-up finishes and she followed that up with 28 more points at the Class LL state championship meet.
Riché won the 100-meter hurdles by just 1/100th of a second over Wilton’s Anna Labant at the FCIAC meet. Riché had her personal-record time of 14.82 and Labant’s official time was 14.83.
Riché and LaBant placed first or second in both hurdles races as LaBant won the 300-meter hurdles race in 45.87 to finish 0.65 a second ahead of Riché (46.52), who got her other FCIAC runner-up finish in the triple jump.
At the Class LL state meet Riché won both hurdles races and placed second in the triple jump (35-6). Her Greenwich teammate, Kayah Armstrong, was third in the triple jump (35-3¾).
Passalacqua and Daplyn were Greenwich’s other champions in individual events at the FCIAC championships.
Passalacqua won the 1600 (5:07.38) and placed second in the 3200 (11:04.89) at the FCIAC meet. She was third in the 3200 and sixth in the 1600 (5:07.27) at the Class LL meet.
Passalacqua finished her fabulous freshman year by placing fifth in the 3200 (10:57.93) at the New England Championships. During the fall season Passalacqua and McCooe placed fifth and ninth, respectively, when they led Greenwich’s girls’ cross country team to the CIAC Class LL state championship.
Daplyn won the 400 (57.95) at FCIAC and anchored three winning relay teams at the FCIAC and state Class LL championship meets. She also placed third in the 800 at both the Class LL meet and State Open, where she got her PR of 2:13.94.
Hardwick was consistently one of the best half milers in the state and she and McCooe were members of the 4×400 and 4×800 relay teams which placed first at both of those meets.
Hardwick was the 800 runner-up at the FCIAC meet, fourth at Class LL, and fifth at the State Open 800 when she got her PR of 2:15.41.
Silver placed third in the FCIAC and fourth at Class LL in the 400 (59.42) and she teamed up with Hardwick, McCooe and Daplyn on the winning 4×400 teams in the FCIAC and Class LL meets. They improved by about 11½ seconds at the Class LL meet when they achieved their fastest time of 3:58.92.
Orla Muir and Adriana Bozza joined Hardwick and McCooe on the victorious FCIAC 4×800 relay team. A week later Greenwich’s 4×800 lineup of Hardwick, McCooe, Muir and Daplyn also ran about 11½ seconds faster at the Class LL meet to win with a 9:25.33. The 4×800 relay team lowered the time down to 9:09.94 with a runner-up finish at the New England Championships.
Knuth placed second behind Smith in the shot put (35-7) and third in the discus at the conference championships. Knuth again scored 14 points at the Class LL meet when she was runner-up in the discus (115-10) and third in the shot put.
New Canaan’s Smith pulled off the very rare feat of sweeping all three throwing events at the FCIAC and Class L state championship meets and then she also collected gold medals in the javelin at the State Open and New England Championships.
Smith won the State Open by 7 feet, 2 inches with her javelin throw of 132 feet, 4 inches, and then she finished her career in classy fashion by throwing it 6 feet farther for her PR of 138-2 at the New England Championships. Smith also finished fourth in the shot put at the State Open.
At the FCIAC championships, Smith bested the field in in the javelin by 22 feet, 7 inches, she won the shot put (38-8½) by 3 feet, 1½ inches, and the discus (115-5) by 6 feet, 5 inches.
A pair of sophomores, New Canaan jumper Milana Hutchins and Trumbull sprinter McKenzyi Bell, joined Smith as multiple individual champions at the FCIAC championships.
Hutchins was the FCIAC champion in long jump (17-0½) and triple jump (35-3¼) who went on to place third in the triple jump at the Class L state championship meet.
Bell and Bridgeport Central’s Jamaya Slowley had one of the FCIAC’s all-time great sprinting rivalries in terms of their quality and the extreme closeness of their postseason races.
Bell nipped Slowley in the 100-meter dash and 200 at the FCIAC championships. Bell won the 100-meter dash (12.27) by 0.13 a second over Slowley (12.4), and the 200 was even closer as Bell’s 25.81 was just 0.05 a second ahead of Slowley’s 25.86.
And then at the Class LL state championship the 200 final was amazingly even closer when Slowley (26.073) beat Bell (26.076) by 3/1,000th of a second. Slowley placed sixth and Bell was seventh.
That race occurred after Bell placed third and Slowley was seventh in the 100 at the Class LL meet. Bell later achieved her 200 PR time of 25.64 when she placed seventh at the State Open.
Ridgefield sophomore Isla Dougan cleared 5 feet to win the high jump, Ridgefield’s 4×100 relay also won, Evangelina Bloechle was runner-up in the discus (108-0), and Elizabeth Campbell scored 12 points in the three throwing events to help the Tigers secure second place at the FCIAC championships.
Ridgefield’s Camille Wyatt, Hannah Salmore, Lucy Thompson and Sara Hill won the 4×100 relay (49.34) in a very close finish as they were just 0.17 ahead of runner-up Trumbull (49.51). Thompson also placed third in the long jump (16-6).
Campbell scored 22 of the Tigers’ 50.5 points to lead them to fifth place at the Class LL meet. She won the discus (117-9), was runner-up in the shot put (35-10½) and fifth in the javelin.
After Hutchins won the long jump and triple jump and Charlotte Moor was runner-up in the 1600 (5:09.97) to lead New Canaan to third place at the FCIAC championships, Moor placed second in the 800 (2:19.83) and Hutchins was third in the triple jump at the Class L meet.
Windsor won the Class L team title with 118 points. From the FCIAC: New Canaan placed third with 71 points and Wilton was fifth with 55.
LaBant was one of five Wilton Warriors along with Melinda Pettit, Sophia Viggiano, Allison Rayment, and Jenna Mancuso who had either a victory or a runner-up finish in the FCIAC or state Class L meets.
After LaBant won the 300 hurdles and was runner-up in 100 hurdles at the FCIAC championships, LaBant placed second in the 100 hurdles and fourth in the 300 hurdles at the Class L meet, and she got her personal-record time of 14.78 in the 100 hurdles when she was third at the State Open.
Pettit was the FCIAC pole vault champion (10-8) and the Class L runner-up. Viggiano cleared 5 feet both times when she placed second in the high jump at the FCIAC and Class L meets, and she was the FCIAC runner-up in the javelin (97-11).
Rayment the FCIAC runner-up in the 400 (58.11), just 0.16 behind Daplyn. Mancuso placed fourth in the 3200 (11:20.72) at the FCIAC meet and was runner-up in the Class L 3200 (11:24).
Sarah Bogdan of Staples and Fairfield Warde’s Alexandra Morgan, two junior distance runners, each had a victory and third-place finish at the FCIAC championships prior to more very good postseason performances.
Bogdan won the 3200 (11:01.59) and placed third in the 1600 (5:11.67) at the FCIAC meet. Then she was fourth in the 3200 at both Class L and State Open before she placed sixth in the 3200 (10:59.52) at the New England Championships.
Morgan won the 800 (2:19.19) and was third in the 3200 (11:19.94) at the conference championships, placed third in the Class LL 1600 (5:03.11), then she got her 1600 PR of 4:58.93 at the State Open when she was fifth.
Two more runner-up finishers at the FCIAC championships were Stamford’s long jumper Paige Wilks (16-6¼) and Manar Abis of Staples in the pole vault (9-6).
The FCIAC had three of the best hurdlers in the state.
Norwalk junior Gabriella Rivera her season-best times in the 100 hurdles (14.97) and 300 hurdles (46.87) at the FCIAC championships when she was close behind Greenwich’s Riché and Wilton’s LaBant, and then Rivera was the Class LL runner-up to Riché in both events.