Connors breaks school record

Grand Island Dispatch, May 5, 2006

John Connors capped off an impressive meet with a new 200-meter school record to lead the Grand Island Vikings Track and Field team to a 79-62 victory over Niagara Falls on May 2. The victory improved the team’s record to 3-0.

After placing second in the high hurdles race, Connors won the 400-meter intermediate hurdles with an impressive time of 59.8 seconds. The senior then went on to improve the Grand Island school record over 200 meters by running a time of 22.8, one tenth of a second faster than the old 22.9 time. He finished the meet running in the 1,600-meter relay along with Jeff Rogan, Brett Fiedler and Tim Fargino.

Fargino also had a good day as he led Grand Island to a 1-2-3 finish in the 1,600-meter and 800-meter races. Wes Burkman and Jordan Gibson completed the Vikings sweep over the 1,600-meter distance. Evan Tsembelis and Gibson finished in second and third place respectively in the 800-meter run.

Burkman notched another victory for the Vikings in the 3,200-meter run with teammate D.J. Demarco taking second place. Ben Angelo led Grand Island to a 1-2-3 finish in the pole vault, ahead of fellow-Vikings Shawn D’Angelo and Adam Helman.

Ian Clark finished second in the shot put with 44 feet, while Fiedler and Rogan took second and third place, respectively, in the 400-meter run. Mike Asbach and Eric Billica came in 2-3 in the triple jump.

On April 29, the Vikings place fourth at the Ken-Ton Invite. Connors won the 400 meters with Rogan coming in fourth place. Tsembelis won the 1,600 meters in the freshman division. Running at an even pace for most of the race, Tsembelis pulled away from his opponents over the last 150 meters. The 1,600-meter freshman relay team of Chris Stessing, Jordan Gibson, Joe Connors and Tsembelis took second place.