NEW LONDON - In Nicole Lizotte’s own words, “It was a good day.”
The Bacon Academy senior brought home three first-place medals from the Eastern Connecticut Conference girls indoor track championship at Coast Guard Academy on Saturday. Her 4x180 relay team captured a first-place finish. Then she went out individually and proved she was the best female jumper and fastest female runner in the competition.
Not bad for a day’s work.
 “Definitely impressive,” said Bacon Academy girls coach Tyler Edwardsen.
But not entirely expected.
 The Bobcats’ coach said he was debating whether to put Lizotte in the high jump or long jump. Had he elected to put her in the high jump, she would have had to compete with NFA’s Allyson Lewis.
 “We’ve been watching (Lewis) for a long time in the high jump and she clears five-feet consistently,” Edwardsen said. “She cleared 5-6 at a meet we were at earlier in the year. When it came down to it, there was no need to put Nicole there.”
Lizotte did qualify for the state championship in the long jump two weeks ago when she tried it for a first time this season. But after five attempts, she was in third place with a 14-feet, 9.5-inch leap.
Then came her final, fateful attempt.
 “It was a shock to all of us,” Edwardsen said. “Out of nowhere, she jumps 16-feet,”
16-1 to be exact to take the first-place medal.
 “I was having rough jumps before that. My coach just told me to make adjustments in my steps and I did. It worked for me,” Lizotte said. “I was seeded third, I didn’t think I had a chance at all.”
Pumped up after the win, Lizotte took off to the 55-meter final. There, she was seeded second to Madison Powe of Fitch.
“I came in wanting to work my hardest and focused on winning and just wanted to make sure that I didn’t screw up anything at the start,” Lizotte said.
She got out of the blocks quickly and finished in 7.52 seconds, 4 /100th’s better than Saige Deveau of East Lyme and 8/ 100th’s better than Powe. “I’m really excited. I didn’t know this would happen, but I’m really happy that it did,” Lizotte said.
“It just tied everything together. She hit the trifecta,” Edwardsen said.
Double trouble
It can be difficult when two teammates are talented enough to be competing for first-place finishes in big meets. It’s even more interesting when they are twin sisters.
Paige and Madison Martin are such a case.
The Norwich Free Academy sophomores were the last two standing in the pole vault competition on Saturday.
 “I love it,” said Paige. “It helps push me to do better. She jumps high and I have to jump higher.”
Paige cleared 10-feet, 6-inches to win the championship, Madison was second at 10-feet even.
 “They compete about everything,” NFA coach Tom Teixeira said. “It makes them better.”
Paige said that is true in practice, but in a competition, it’s the Martins against the world.
 “When we’re both on the runway trying to focus, we do different things to help each other out, talking to one another. She came over to me (Saturday) before a jump,” Paige said.
The two will be taking on the state in the Class LL state championship at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.
Paige tried to clear 11-feet on Saturday, even going up a pole in an attempt to clear. She almost did so on her third and last attempt. NFA pole vault coach Russ Versteeg even declared her over, only to see the bar come tumbling down at the last moment. She just needed that little extra “oomph” that is sometimes hard to find on the third attempt.
 “If that had been my first attempt, I think I would have definitely made it,” Paige said.
She reached that height the week before in the Bacon Academy Invite in New Haven. But her goals are much higher.
 “My goal for the season was 11-6,” Paige said. “I made 11 (feet) so I’m pretty happy where I am, but I want to go higher,”
Like 14-feet by the time her career at NFA comes to a close. She may not need that much on Saturday to win a state championship, but she may need more than 11-feet.
Megan Biscoglio of Southington cleared 12-1 this season and Lia Zavarraro has cleared 11-feet.
Team effort
 East Lyme coach Carl Reichard said he sounds like a broken record. Every time he talks about the team, he talks about how hard his girls work. But, in track, that is the formula for success.
The Vikings made it four straight championships with the win on Saturday.
 “They came here with good determination,” Reichard said. “We were stronger in the distance and mid-distance than we were last year, we’re not quite as strong in the sprints. We had some girls jump into events that they don’t normally do. I had a couple of girls do the high jump who have only done so a couple of times this year and they got places for us.”
It was that kind of depth that paid off for East Lyme.
The Vikings had only two first-place individual finishes: Rasa Kirvelevicius won the 3,200-meter and Claire Mason was first in the 1,000. East Lyme also took first in the 4x360 and 4x720 relays.
But even in events where they didn’t win, they prospered.
For example, the Vikings took 17 points in the 600 without a first-place finish. The only event they didn’t score in was the pole vault.
 “It’s a good team environment and with a track meet being so individual, that’s not necessarily easy to foster,” Reichard said. “The kids have to buy that and they did that. They worked hard as a group and supported each other.”