HS track and field: Sun, warmth greets Ledyard competitors

The Ledyard Relays had built a reputation.
"Usually it's raining or snowing, and cold," NFA girls track coach Kara Kochanski said.
But for the second year in a row, blue skies and comfortable temperatures in the mid-70's greeted the coaches and participants at Ledyard High School on Saturday.
"The Ledyard relays is great," Griswold girls coach Chris Morth said. "You never get weather like this so when you come here and it's 75 degrees and sunny, the kids all get really into it."
That's because, according to the Griswold coach, that the athletes get to do some things they don't get a chance to do during dual meets.
That includes running relays which are sometimes skipped in the duals due to a lack of numbers as well as some other fun events such as the 4 x 1600 meter relay and the weight person 4 x 100-mter relay.
The other thing about the Ledyard Relays, as almost all coaches agree, it's the last "fun" event of the season prior to the tough and serious stretch that follows.
"You want to see them pop out a really good time here, but you also want it to stay under the radar," NFA assistant coach Chad Johnson said.
There were some performances that may find the radar.
Chris Antoine of NFA set a Ledyard Relay mark when he cleared six-feet-six-inches in the high jump. That was an inch better than NFA alum Mike Elliott, but there's another Elliott record that Antoine is really shooting for, his six-foot-eight mark at the ECC championship.
The only other record that fell came in the 4x1600-meter where the NFA quartet of Molly Kalla, Cassy Hunter, Kathleen O'Brien and Sarah Eagan, all seniors, breezed to victory.
The Wildcats also had Wahnetah Carty (long jump), Yana Babbitt (javelin), and Kaylan Pickford (pole vault) pick up individual firsts.
"I'm very pleased," Kochanski said. "I like the way it started out when we got the record in the mile race and then Wahnetah comes in and jumps her best in triple jump and Yana had a personal record in the javelin."