October 4, 2013 - Southingtonlibrary.org

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The Step Saver/ The Observer
Friday, October 4, 2013
Our Athletes
•SHS Field Hockey, Soccer...pages 30-31
•SHS Swimming, Volleyball...page 33
•Hall of Fame - Lenny Clements...page 34
•SHS Football Blanks Simsbury...page 35
Capture the flag
Membrino wins his 3rd checkered flag
to claim the SK Light title at Stafford
DRISCOLL MOTORSPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Tony Membrino Jr. celebrates in the winners’ circle with
a victory in the Carquest Fall Final that clinched the SK
Light points title at Stafford Motor Speedway on Sept. 28.
By JOHN GORALSKI
SPORTS WRITER
Tony Membrino circled
the track in a victory
lap, drinking in the
cheers from the grandstand at
Stafford Motor Speedway. On
Saturday, Sept. 28, a crowd spilled
out of their seats to circle the
black and purple car, and
Membrino jumped onto the hood
to get a better look through the
mob.
He scanned the crowd and
zeroed in on his target.
Car Racing
Membrino brushed past celebrating
fans. He pushed through
the other drivers and race officials
to find his father, Tony Membrino,
Sr. The two embraced in a wild
hug to celebrate their SK Light
division title. The cheering faded
into white noise, and the fatherson
team drank in the moment.
“Without him, I wouldn’t be
here,” Membrino said. “We don’t
have a lot of money or excessive
sponsorship dollars behind us, so
there’s a lot of penny pinching
involved. For everything we do,
“
For everything we do,
and everything
we go up against,
to come out
on top again is a
million dollar feeling.
“
Tony Membrino, Jr.,
Racecar driver
and everything we go up against,
to come out on top again is a million
dollar feeling.”
Membrino has a racing pedigree
that reaches back three generations.
He has short track legends
offering advice in the pit and
a growing fan base at the Stafford
track, but car racing is a big-budget
commitment with high-priced
equipment, tires, and quick turnarounds
for major repairs. Still, the
father-son duo have been holding
their own on a shoe-string budget.
“He sacrifices so much just so
we can go racing, and there aren’t
enough words to describe my
gratitude for everything he does,”
Membrino said about his father’s
commitment as his crew chief.
The two work side-by-side all
week in a garage and tinker with
the racecar long into the night.
“We put ourselves through the
ringer so we can succeed, and
sometimes it seems we’re in over
our heads. I am beyond ecstatic
that we can share this together.”
Membrino’s victory at the
CarQuest Fall Final was his third
one this season at the Stafford
Motor Speedway. The points title
championship is his third one in
the past five years in two different
divisions. The local driver has captured
17 top 10 finishes in 18 races
this year. Twelve times, he’s finished
in the top five, but his third
victory didn’t come easily.
The car handled well in the
practice rounds on Friday morn-
See MEMBRINO, page 28
Blue Knights mix it up
Cross Country shines at co-ed Sloper Relays
By JOHN GORALSKI
SPORTS WRITER
Parents and boosters
huddle around gas grills at
the edge of the pavilion,
while groups of athletes stroll
around the field in a wash of
fall colors. On Friday, Sept.
27, YMCA Camp Sloper
looked more like a fall festival
than a competitive racing
meet, and that’s just what
officials want at the 2013
Sloper Relays.
Cross Country
The mid-season challenge
has become an oasis
for distance athletes, and it’s
a chance for good-natured
ribbing among teammates
and across programs. The
unique co-ed meet has
swelled to 10 teams with
almost 200 athletes competing
across five divisions, and
it has grown into a good
team-building exercise in a
sport that celebrates the individual.
“The athletes say that
they love to come out here
because this is for fun,” said
Blue Knight cross country
coach Rich Niro. “It’s great to
take the time to enjoy running
for fun and racing just to
see how good you are without
having to worry about
team scores. It’s a really nice
change for a lot of these athletes
with all the pressure
that’s put on them during the
season.”
Don’t misunderstand.
This is a fierce competition,
but it’s unlike anything else
on the cross-country schedule.
Instead of herding teams
of boys or girls onto 5K courses,
the Sloper Relays consists
of four 1.5-mile loops on a
special flat-course designed
for speed.
Two and four-person
teams challenge the course
with boys and girls teaming
up against all-boy teams or
all-girls squads in a mad dash
for supremacy. Niro said that
there’s something for everybody,
and it’s a good chance
to pair up mis-matched athletes
to see how they compete
or load a relay team to
try to dominate the field.
Winners claim plates of
cookies instead of trophies,
and bragging rights become
the biggest prize.
“I really like the coed
teams. When do you ever get
to do that in high school?”
said Niro. “It allows them to
work with their teammates in
a different way, and it’s sometimes
teammates that you
never get to work with.”
Take senior co-captain
Andrzej Bielecki and up-andcoming
freshman Catherine
Myers. When an illness
scratched Bielecki’s teammate
from the competition,
Myers was thrust into an
unlikely pairing, but the two
rallied for a third place finish
in the one boy-one girl division.
Their time of 37 minutes,
11 seconds came within
30 seconds of the fastest
time.
Or look at the four person
co-ed division. Niro
stacked a relay with state
level runners. Sean Garrison,
Jack Myers, Gabi Napoli, and
Lauren Perkowski finished
their relay in 35:43 to set a
new division record (35:01)
and beat their nearest competitors
by almost 45 seconds.
Other programs did the
same thing. Bristol Central
stacked their two-boys team,
and Josh Signore and Justin
Zaino ran two legs apiece to
post the best time of the day
(32:43). Cheshire won the
four boys division, and
Bristol Central edged Megan
Albert and Amanda Hamel
(41:20) for the two girls division
title.
When Catherine Myers
See X-COUNTRY, page 30
At right, Colin Murphy
races across the gravel
surface at YMCA
Camp Sloper during a
recent Blue Knight
race.
JOHN GORALSKI