Last year Greenwich placed second at both the 2024-25 FCIAC Girls Indoor Track and Field Championships and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Girls Indoor Track and Field Championships.
This year the 2025-26 Cardinals advanced that one more step to become conference champions and then state champions.
Greenwich’s deep lineup bolstered by great relay teams enabled the Cardinals to win the FCIAC and state Class LL championships and then they placed second at the CIAC State Open.
Those achievements along with four conference athletes who won their individual events multiple times at postseason conference or state championship meets highlighted a successful girls indoor track and field season in the FCIAC.
Alexandra Lockwood and Frieda Patzner of Fairfield Ludlowe, Fairfield Warde’s Alexandra Morgan and Brien McMahon’s Gabriella Rivera were the four FCIAC athletes who won their respective events multiple times.
Sophie Passalacqua had runner-up finishes in the two longest races at the FCIAC and both state championship meets, while Eliana Daplyn and Margaret McCooe were teammates on many winning relay teams at those same three championship meets to lead Greenwich.
In last year’s FCIAC championship meet Greenwich finished just five points behind New Canaan, which won with 71. Greenwich was runner-up with 66 points and Staples placed third with 55.
This year Greenwich ran away from the field with 116 points which were 51 points more than runner-up New Canaan’s 65.
Fairfield Ludlowe placed third with 55 points, Ridgefield and Staples tied for fourth place with 48, and Brien McMahon was just two points behind them in sixth place with 46 points. The FCIAC Championships took place on Feb. 5 at Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.
Nine days later coach Peter Watson’s Cardinals captured their Class LL state championship at the same venue as they led a 1-2 finish of FCIAC teams, with Lockwood and Patzner leading Fairfield Ludlowe to second place.
Greenwich won with 87 points and Ludlowe’s 56 points were four more than Manchester’s 52.
There were five FCIAC teams which placed among the top six. Brien McMahon placed fifth with 32 points, just one more point than Ridgefield and Staples.
New Canaan was runner-up in the Class L state championship with 49.33 points, 8.33 points more than third-place Hall, as Windsor won with 105 points.
Bloomfield won the State Open on Feb. 21 with 76 points. Greenwich was second with 55 and Windsor placed third with 33.
Passalacqua, Greenwich’s super sophomore distance runner, scored 16 big points individually in each of three championship meets with runner-up finishes in the 1,600-meter race and 3,200 at the FCIAC, Class LL and State Open meets.
Passalacqua improved in every meet and clocked her best times of 4:48.73 in the 1,600-meter run and a 10:47.17 in the 3,200 at the State Open.
Greenwich’s 1,600 sprint medley relay team won with a time of 4:13.26 at the Open to nip runner-up Bloomfield (4:13.5) by 0.24 of a second when Daplyn surged across the finish line with the baton after Riley Barber, Chloe Culver and McCooe ran the first three legs. That same quartet also won the event at the FCIAC and Class LL meets.
Daplyn, who previously won the FCIAC 1,000-meter race (2:58.4), and McCooe also teamed up with Nina Silver and Gemma Hardwick on the winning 4×400 relay team (4:02.45) at the State Open after that same foursome won the Class LL 4×400 relay with a 4:02.9. The four Cardinals on the 4×400 relay team lowered the season-best time to 4:01.5 at the New England Championships when they placed fourth.
Also at the Class LL meet, Orla Muir, Andrea Bozza, McCooe and Hardwick won the 4×800 relay (9:48.61).
Hardwick and Silver also contributed significant points in their 600-meter races. Hardwick won the 600 at the FCIAC and Class LL meets and then got her best time of 1:37.81 when she placed sixth at the State Open. Silver placed third at Class LL and seventh (1:39.13) at the State Open.
Also, for the Cardinals, their consistent shot-putter Theresa Knuth was runner-up at the FCIAC Championships with a 39-9 and she then placed second at Class LL (39-6½) and fourth at the State Open.
New Canaan’s 4×800 relay team, which had no seniors, won the State Open (9:36.76) by 7.16 seconds over runner-up Glastonbury (9:43.92). Junior Sienna de Kanter led off, sophomores Lauren Casey and Gabrielle Savelli covered the next two legs and freshman Georgina Harrington ran the anchor leg.
Seven days later New Canaan’s 4×800 relay team improved by exactly six seconds with its 9:30.76 when the four Rams placed fifth at the New England Championships.
Sienna de Kanter scored 16 team points when she won the 3,200-meter race (11:17.11) and placed third in the 1,600 (5:15.13) as she and Harrington combined to score 28 points to lead the Rams to second place at the Class L state championship meet. Harrington, the FCIAC 600 runner-up, was third in both the 1,000 (3:02.7) and 3,200 (11:28.79) at Class L.
Kate Frangione and Milana Hutchins contributed third-place finishes for New Canaan at the Class L state meet. Frangione cleared 10 feet, 6 inches for second place at the FCIAC Championships and then placed third (10-0) at Class L. Hutchins was the runner-up long jumper (17-0¼) at the FCIAC meet and she placed third (17-0¾) at Class L.
Lockwood and Patzner won their multiple postseason events to lead the Fairfield Ludlowe Falcons to second place at the Class LL meet after they placed third at the FCIAC Championships.
Lockwood became the FCIAC shot put champion when she put the shot 40-6¾ and the senior followed that with a 40-3 when she won her Class LL state title. Lockwood later placed fifth at the State Open and seventh at the New England Championships.
Patzner scored 20 team points when she swept both jumping events, the long jump (17-8¾) and high jump, at the Class LL state meet. Patzner first won the FCIAC high jump (5-0). At the Class LL state championship, the junior cleared her first attempt at 5-5 to lead a 1-2-3 sweep of Falcons as Ann Gilligan and Olivia Wellen both cleared 4-10 to finish second and third, respectively.
One week later at the State Open, Patzner was the runner-up and Wellen placed fourth when they both cleared 5-2 in the high jump. Patzner also placed sixth in the long jump (17-3½) at the State Open.
Ludlowe pole vaulters Lily Sullivan and Emma Drought cleared 10 feet to place high at separate state championship meets. Sullivan placed third at Class LL and Drought was sixth at the State Open.
Rivera, Brien McMahon’s excellent senior sprinter/hurdler, and her sprinter teammate, Ann Sara Luma, both excelled in the postseason.
Rivera was the FCIAC’s only individual State Open champion when she won the 55-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 8.06 after she won the Class LL 55 hurdles and was the FCIAC champion in the 300 (41.29). Rivera wrapped up her great season as the runner-up in the 55 hurdles (8.11) at the New England Championships.
Luma won the 55-meter dash (7.2) and placed second in the 300 at the FCIAC Championships. She placed third in 300 at Class LL, at the State Open the senior placed fifth in both the 55 dash (7.22) and 300. Coincidentally enough, Luma had the same exact time to 1/100th of a second with her 41.24 at both state championship meets.
Also for McMahon: pole vaulter Lily Royce was the Class LL runner-up (10-6) and then fifth (10-0) at the State Open.
Morgan, Fairfield Warde’s senior distance runner, has had so many great cross country and track seasons in her career and this past winter’s indoor track season was another one of them.
She first became the FCIAC 1,600 champion (5:07.38) and that preceded three straight great races in the 1,000. Morgan steadily improved and lowered her best time to 2:56.07 when she placed third in the 1,000 at the New England Championships after she won with a 3:01.71 at the Class L meet and was runner-up (2:57.3) at the State Open.
Morgan also brought the Mustangs home to victory when she ran the anchor leg on the Class L winning 1,600 sprint medley relay team (4:20.84) which included Deleanna Urizar, Ivy D’Elia and Mia Ferranti.
Also for Fairfield Warde: pole vaulter Kendall Cunnigham cleared 10-6 two weeks in a row when she was the Class L runner-up prior to placing fourth at the State Open.
There were several more FCIAC athletes who placed high in championship meets.
For Staples: Sarah Bogdan became the FCIAC 3,200 champion (10:58.03) prior to placing third at Class LL and fifth (10:53.55) at the State Open; Manar Abis was the Class LL pole vault state champion (10-6) and Taylor Black was the FCIAC long jump champion (17-5½).
Melinda Pettit of Wilton was a conference champion as the only pole vaulter to clear 11 feet.
Ridgefield’s Erin Byrne was the runner-up in the 1,000 at the FCIAC Championships and she improved her time to 3:02.12 when she placed third at the Class LL meet.