BRISTOL — The Bristol Central boys’ track and field team turned in another special season, and you don’t do that without special athletes.
Julieen Lopez, Isaiah Fabrizio, Tristian Toussaint, Nate Davis and Will Postell all medaled at the state meet, and all five seniors are off to the next level.
Lopez, Fabrizio, Davis and Toussaint will all continue their academic and track and field careers at nearby Central Connecticut State University, while Postell will be doing the same at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.
“Hopefully we’re on their payroll now,” joked Bristol Central coach Tamara Stafford-Kirk during the Rams’ recent signing day event.
Stafford-Kirk called Southern Connecticut, where Postell is going “one of our favorite places to send people.”
College track and field wasn’t necessarily something that was on any of the five’s radar, especially as young kids. But they grew into the sport in their respective events and worked their way into becoming not just high school stars, but athletes who could compete at the next level.
“Our story is a little different, these guys did not grow up doing track and field,” Stafford-Kirk said. “Unfortunately we don’t have a youth track program at Bristol, so I think that says even more about where they’ve come from and how hard they’re willing to work. When these guys came to us, they did not know how to do the things they’re doing now.”
And what they’re doing now, and what they’ve done over the course of the last four years, is remarkable.
That starts with Davis (44-1) and Postell (44-0), who finished 1-2 in the Class L state championships in the triple jump last season, with Postell finishing second and Davis third this season. Postell also finished eighth in the long jump.
“We’ve got a couple of the best triple and long jumpers in the state,” Stafford-Kirk said. “You never know when you’re going to see something. Will and Nate from the get-go, coach Kevin Taylor texted me and said we’ve got these two wirey little guys out here on the football team and they can get up, they can jump. What they’ve done, what Nate has done after having what we thought was a season-ending and possibly career-ending injury and coming back to jump is just unbelievable. Central Connecticut and Southern are getting two of our best ever.”
Toussaint, meanwhile, will go down as the best hurdler in program history. The numbers speak for themselves, as he became the first athlete in program history to run sub-15 in the 110 hurdles, ultimately running a 14.74 in a third-place finish in the Class L championships this season while adding a sixth-place finish in the 300 hurdles.
“What Tristian has done in the 110 hurdles is unbelievable,” Stafford-Kirk said. “He’s the first male ever at Bristol Central to be under 15 seconds. He ran 14.92, 14.91 and busted out a 14.61 at the CCC’s. If you were anywhere around New Britain, you knew the race was being run, because I was going out of mind.”
Stafford-Kirk was a standout hurdler, among many events, at Bristol Eastern, before going on to a decorated college career at Division I Campbell University in North Carolina, so getting to work with Toussaint was something near and dear to her heart.
“I work closely with the hurdlers,” she said. “Tristan and I have talked a lot of times about what a good hurdle race is like and when you are running a good hurdle race those hurdles are coming up on you so quick. It’s just so special. It’s what these guys are a part of and what they’re going to bring to CCSU and Southern. The growth that we’ve seen from them is immense. When they came to us mostly as freshmen, they didn’t really know what they were going to be good at, what area they were going to be in.”
Lopez and Fabrizio, meanwhile, became two of the best short and middle-distance runners in the state.
Lopez placed third in the 400 at the Class L championships this season (51.09), while Fabrizio was sixth in the 800 (3:30.87). They were both part of the 4×800 (fifth, 8:14.29) and 4×400 (eighth, 3:30.87) relay teams that also medaled at Class L’s this season.
“Isaiah and Julieen, these guys can run anything,” Stafford-Kirk said. “We could put them in the 100 if we wanted to. They run up to 800 meters, they could go up to 1600 if we needed them to. They were part of a relay that had one of the top three times in the state this season, that 4×800 relay.
“Isaiah’s sophomore year at the froshmore championships, I got a text from coach Baker that said Isaiah just ran a 2:02 800 split in the 4×800. I knew he was progressing, but that was a breakthrough. You never know when they’re going to have that breakthrough.”
Watching the growth and maturity is something Stafford-Kirk and her staff have taken a lot of pride in. And that’s been a trickledown effect with the Bristol Central track and field program. And she knows that will continue as this talented group of seniors is off to college.
“As they mature, we are so proud to see the leadership that they’ve brought to our program,” Stafford-Kirk said. “But mostly we’re just proud of the development of these guys. They’re good because the guys before them did the work and now they’re stepping up and doing that. They’re chasing each other. Every year, we lose a couple guys and we don’t say is someone going to step up, it’s who’s going to step up.
“This is not you’re traditional sport. A lot of people just don’t have the guts to come out and try it. When these guys line up for an 800 or 110 hurdle race, they’re putting everything on the line. I give them a lot of credit for stepping up. We’re going to be following their careers and they’re going to do great things.”
