Ella Le is currently a senior at Torrington High School. She is the girls’ captain of the indoor and outdoor track teams, and in the fall she runs cross country. She is the senior Student Council’s executive vice president and is part of several clubs, including Model UN, Young Democrats, and the National Honor Society. After high school, she plans to attend UConn to study marketing management. Outside of school, she enjoys hanging out with friends and watching How I Met Your Mother. She hopes that through The Raider Report she can better connect with her community and raise the Raider spirit.
“The hay is in the barn.” You know it’s that time of the season when Torrington High School’s track coach, Jonathan Cahill, pulls out his classic line. This means that the hard work is done and now it’s time to see the results.
On Saturday, January 30, Torrington took select athletes to the Naugatuck Valley League Championships, competing against 14 other teams in the NVL. This was the meet that the Raiders had been preparing for all season. Many personal records (PRs) were made but some athletes did exceptionally well.
The boys’ sprint team brought in many points this year for Torrington, but there were two athletes in particular who were more than outstanding. Junior sprinters Naziah Lopez and Brody Beckett both earned medals in their individual events.
Lopez got 4th place in the 55 meter dash with a giant PR of 6.79 seconds, while Beckett got 5th place in the 600 meter race with a PR of 1:33.
Hurdling their way to the podium, runners Talia Tapia Borja and Rashaud McFarlane both found themselves PR’ing that day. Borja came out of the blocks with an amazing personal record of 9.66 seconds in the girls 55 meter hurdles. This brought her into finals, where she got 3rd place.
McFarlane, a senior new to the team, also got a personal record that day with 8.59 seconds, getting 4th place overall in the boys 55 meter hurdles.
With long strides and great mentality, the distance team brought it all. Both the boys and girls 4×800 teams earned their spots on the podium. The boys earned 6th and the girls 5th.
The boys’ team was made up of Ethan Ercoli, James Riley, Raghav Perera, and Imitinan Alam. The girls were made up of Gabriella Prahm, Elizabeth Larobis, Olivia Trigonis, and Ella Le. Both teams earned personal records, leaving the meet with happy faces and lots of medals.
Senior distance runner Brendan Keskula performed well in all his events, but his performance in the 1000-meter brought cheers from the entire team. Keskula earned 4th overall with a PR of 2:50.
A fun fact, Torrington High School’s indoor track team has only one athlete who competes in pole vault during indoor track. Despite his inability to practice during the cold winter season, junior athlete Jacob Reidhaar prevailed and earned 6th place overall in boys pole vault.
Jumping both high and long, senior athlete Keyo Vilayvong quickly gained attention this season, filling in the shoes of the many high-performing athletes that graduated last year. In high jump, Vilayvong jumped 5’10’’, getting him 4th place, tying with the athletes in 2nd and 3rd. In long jump he got 6th place with a PR of 19’ 8.25’’.
Ending the meet with a bang, both the girls and boys 4×400 meter relays teams finished 3rd overall. The boys team being made up of athletes Naziah Lopez, Brody Beckett, Devin Ballard and Juan Batista finishing with a 3:43 (A new PR and qualifying time for States).
The girls team was made up of Talia Tapia Borja, Ella Le, Ava Hardwick, and Lisbeth Angomas. The girls also finished with a new personal record of 4:46.
The results of this meet proved just how much the Raiders’ hard work paid off this season. Head Coach Jonathan Cahill says “We knew we lost some of our top athletes on the boys’ side from last year, but despite that, we still performed competitively and represented THS well.”
He also said, “The girls did a phenomenal job. They earned a lot of season bests and are continuously improving, despite the small numbers that we ended this season with.”
Cahill claims, “All of the coaches really enjoyed working with the team throughout the season, and could not have asked for a better way to end the regular season.”
Now that NVLs are over, the regular season has come to an end. But not for everyone… Today, the Raiders who qualified will be attending the CIAC states meet. Will they make it to Nationals? Stay tuned and wish them luck!