Greenwich won FCIAC and state championships in the same year for the first time in school history and that perennially strong Danbury program also had a very good season to highlight the boys track and field season for FCIAC teams and athletes.
Greenwich and Danbury placed first and second, respectively, in both the 2025-26 FCIAC Boys Indoor Track and Field Championships and the state Class LL championship meet.
Rysaiah Saunders and Tobeas Kelly of Danbury, Darien’s Andrew Sharron, and Ridgefield’s Kieran Boyle were the four conference athletes who were individual champions multiple times by winning their respective events at either the FCIAC Championships or at state championships.
Coach Christopher Wallace’s Greenwich’s Cardinals utilized their talent, balance and depth and that was the key factor which enabled them to form several strong relay teams which combined to score significant points at the conference championship meet and at the 2025-26 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Ryan Newcomb and Jacob Mobley were Greenwich’s two winners in individual events, Greenwich also won a pair of relay events, and many other Cardinals placed high in individual and relay events to enable Greenwich to win the FCIAC meet by 46 points over runner-up Danbury.
The Cardinals racked up 112 points to win the FCIAC championship for third time in school history. Danbury scored 66 points. Ridgefield placed third with 42.5, Brien McMahon was fourth with 36 while Darien and Fairfield Warde each tallied 34 points to tie for fifth place.
New Canaan (31 points), Trumbull (23), Wilton (18), and Fairfield Ludlowe (17) completed the top 10 at the Feb. 5 conference championship meet at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.
The state class championship meets and State Open also took place at the same venue at Hillhouse High School in New Haven.
Greenwich added its Class LL team title on Feb. 14. Greenwich scored 73 points and runner-up Danbury had 55 as they were two of the five FCIAC teams in the top seven in team scoring.
Ridgefield (32) and Darien (29) were fourth and fifth, respectively, and Brien McMahon (25) placed seventh.
Bloomfield won the State Open with 41 points, just one more point than Lyman Hall. Windsor (32) was third and Hamden (26) took fourth.
Danbury was the highest scoring FCIAC team as the Hatters placed fifth with 23 points. Ridgefield placed seventh with 15 and Greenwich scored 14 points while tying Oxford for eighth place.
Greenwich’s Jack Hannafin, David Boside, Daniel Silver and Alexander Yu teamed up to win the 200-meter relay (1:32.35) in the first event at the FCIAC Championships. That was the opening salvo of the Cardinals’ postseason success and a microcosm as to how key Greenwich’s relay teams would be.
Newcomb won the 600-meter race with a time of 1:24.79 and Mobley became the FCIAC shot put champion when he put the shot 51 feet and a half of an inch.
Newcomb also ran on winning relay teams and had other high placings throughout the postseason championship meets. He placed second in the 600 (1:24.3) in the Class LL meet and ran the anchor leg on the 4×800 relay team which placed first at three postseason meets.
Michael Yardis, Oliver Eaton and Benjamin Hayes ran the first three legs on the victorious 4×800 relay teams at the FCIAC and Class LL meets.
Matteo Chiesara joined Eaton, Hayes and Newcomb as the foursome which won the State Open 4×800 (8:02.87) by 2.71 seconds over runner-up East Lyme (8:05.58), and then Greenwich lowered its time to 7:54.19 when it placed second at the New England Championships.
Chiesara previously placed second in the 1,000 in both the FCIAC meet and Class LL meet (2:37.22), and he brought the Cardinals home in first place as the anchorman on the Class LL meet’s winning 1,600 sprint medley relay team (3:42.27) which included Yu, Noah Frankel and Diego Cordera.
Plenty of those Cardinals on winning relay teams in the postseason also contributed valuable points in individual events.
Boside, Silver and Hannafin placed 2-through-4 in the FCIAC 300-meter race. Yardis (3,200, 9:47.76) and Eaton (1,600, 4:30.52) both came through with third-place finishes at the Class LL meet.
James Hayes, a Greenwich sophomore, placed second in the 3,200 (9:44.33) at the Class LL state championship meet.
Danbury received big points all postseason from Saunders, a sprinter/hurdler, and sprinter/jumper Kelly in their individual specialties along with them teaming up on the winning 4×200 relay teams at the Class LL and State Open meets.
Saunders was the 55-meter hurdles champion at the FCIAC and Class LL meets and a runner-up at the State Open. He got his best time of 7.32 in a fantastic Class LL final in which Saunders won by just 1/100th of a second over East Hartford’s Davian Johnson.
Kelly won the FCIAC long jump by 14½ inches with his leap of 22 feet, 3¼ inches and he jumped three inches further when he was the Class LL long jump champion (22-6¼). Kelly then placed fourth at the State Open (22-4¼).
Danbury sprinters Machai Henry (6.508) and Kelly (6.509) finished within 1/1,000ths of a second of each other at the FCIAC Championships when they placed second and third, respectively, in the 55 dash finals.
Saunders and Kelly teamed up with JaKarri Green and Christopher Rysz to win a thrilling State Open 4×200 relay race as Danbury’s time of 1:31.5 was just 0.04 ahead of runner-up Hamden (1:31.54). Those same four Hatters won the event in the Class LL meet with a 1:31.69 and Danbury’s 4×200 relay team improved the time to 1:30.97 while placing fifth at the New England Championships.
Danbury’s Kelly, Rysz, Caiden Henry, and Angelo Danza won the 1,600-meter sprint medley relay at the FCIAC Championships with a 3:45.45 to nip Greenwich (3:45.85) by .3 of a second. Danza placed third in the 1,000 (2:39.48) at the Class LL meet.
Sharron, Darien’s middle-distance runner, won the 1,600 at the Class LL state championship meet (4:18.59) and the State Open (4:20.87) after he was runner-up at the FCIAC meet (4:21.34).
Also for Darien: Brendan Houchin was the pole vault runner-up with a 13-6 at both the FCIAC and state Class LL meets before he cleared 14 feet when he tied for fifth place at the State Open; and Andrew Khouw tied for third in the Class LL pole vault (13-0).
Boyle, a Ridgefield senior, had a great postseason as one of the fastest sprinters in New England.
Boyle won the 55-meter dash (6.45) at the FCIAC meet, placed first in the 300 (35.63) and second in the 55 dash (6.48) at the Class LL meet, he was runner-up in the 55 dash at both the State Open and New England Championships with identical season-best times of 6.38, and he placed fourth in the 300 (34.72) at the New Englands.
Also for Ridgefield: Aidan Nelson won the FCIAC 1,000 (2:36.2), in the 1,600 he placed second in the Class LL meet and third at the State Open (4:21.4); and William Gallaway was the FCIAC 300 winner (35.91).
Many more FCIAC athletes had victories or placed very high in their respective events in championship meets.
For Fairfield Ludlowe: Devin Brenner was the FCIAC high jump champion as the only jumper who cleared six feet and he also cleared 6-0 when he placed third in the state Class LL meet; and Simon Dawson placed fifth in Class LL pole vault (13-0).
Hudson Schenk of Fairfield Warde first won the 3,200 at the FCIAC Championships, he won the Class L 3,200 with a 9:30.19, and Schenk then ran 11.06 seconds faster with his runner-up time of 9:19.13 at the State Open.
Also, for Warde: Ryan Tetro placed second in FCIAC shot put (48-4), Edward Kushel placed third in the 1,600 at the Class L meet, and Max Mocarski was fourth in the State Open 1,600 (4:23.75).
New Canaan’s Ryan Monohan got his strong postseason rolling by winning the 1,600 (4:20.73) at the FCIAC Championships. In the 1,000 he placed second at Class L, third at the State Open with a 2:31.83, and then he improved to 2:31.76 as the 1,000 runner-up at the New England Championships.
Also for New Canaan: Charlie Koch was the runner-up FCIAC long jumper (20-10¾), and Leo Baroni placed third in Class L 600 (1:25.4).
For Staples: Oliver Samuel was the Class LL 3200 champion (9:43.36) and Samuel DiGiovanni placed second in the high jump (5-10) at the FCIAC meet.
For Trumbull, Justin Steele was a key member of some very good relay teams. He anchored the victorious FCIAC 4×400 relay team (3:32.98) which included Logan Perez, Alexander Perrotta and Nick Mochlas.
Nine days later Perez, Perrotta, Ryan McCann and Steele won the Class LL 4×400 relay (3:30.45), and then the Trumbull foursome of Reece Borowsky, Steele, Mochlas and Ted Hughes placed second in the State Open sprint medley relay (3:39.45).
Nate Elsner of Westhill was one of the state’s best pole vaulters. He cleared 14 feet to become the FCIAC champion, tied for third (13-0) at the Class LL meet and then Elsner again cleared 14 feet when he placed fifth at the State Open.