HS track: Gazlay, Brown take Plainfield wins

The roots of the Plainfield Invitational track meet started with two very different events, the spring decathlon and heptathlon.
The expansion to a track invitational didn't stop those events from happening on Friday and Saturday at Plainfield High School with St. Bernard's Will Gazlay and Old Saybrook's Nora Brown bringing home the title.
16 male athletes, including one unattached collegiate competitor, and nine female athletes took part in the two events.
"Those are good numbers especially since at this time of year, there are not a lot of kids ready to compete in something like that," Plainfield coach Jeff Parkinson, a former collegiate decathlete himself, said.
"It's fun, I enjoyed it, but it's a tough thing to do at this time of year," Parkinson said.
The only caveat to that is that, outside of the Plainfield competition, there are really no opportunities to experience a live decathlon or heptahlon prior to the CIAC championship in June.
"Most of these kids are never going to get the chance to try these events, let alone in a decathlon," Griswold girls coach Chris Morth said. "It's a very valuable experience for kids who are thinking about doing the decathlon and kids who know they want to do the decathlon and want to see where they're at."
Gazlay was a tweener, he didn't know about the decathlon and therefore had no choice when his coach told him to give it a try. The first-year track athlete finished with 4,745 points.
"I absolutely had a blast," Gazlay said, "some of the most fun that I've had in my life. Usually playing football and basketball, running was a punishment- now it's a sport. I totally regret not doing this since my freshman year."
The pole vault was the biggest challenge and one that he couldn't conquer as he failed to get over the bar.
"My form was terrible," Gazlay said with a smile. "I cleared the opening height, but crashed into the bar and got a nice little cut (on his lower left leg). I knew it was going to be tough, it didn't disappoint."
Gazlay led going into the ninth event, the javelin, but stumbled into third after that event. He made up for it in the 1,600-meter run when a late surge helped him finish second and bring home the victory.
"I had a feeling i would be able to do well, because I've tried several of these events," Gazlay said. "We were thinking about 4,300 points; I never expected to finish with this many points and winning the whole thing."
Woodstock's Kyle Wickiser was second (4,661 points) and Killingly's Zach Hadjer (4,443) was third.
Old Saybrook dominated the girls event with Brown finishing first, her teammates Brianna Hanley and Katie Beezer finished second and fifth.
"Having a heptahlon before the state one (is an advantage) because we usually don't do these events in practice," Brown said. "Having people to compete against is an advantage, too."
Brown's biggest stumbling blocks, the javelin and the 800-meter.
Killingly senior Lauren Hultzman was the top local finisher, she was fourth-best in the competition.
"It's a fun thing to do, gives you more practice, and you get to do events that you normally don't get to do," Hultzman said after her first-ever heptahlon competition.
The decathlon and heptahlon competitions took place in between the Plainfield Invitational events. Parkinson said the addition of the Invitational to the specialy events was a good move.
"It was time for it, time to do something a little bigger," the Plainfield boys coach said. "Schools have been asking us to do it, so we figured we would and year one went well."