NEW BRITAIN — Anthony Labbadia soared to 9th place in the triple jump at the 2025 New England track and field championships Saturday, June 14.
On his first attempt of the event he leaped 44 feet and one inch, qualifying for the finals and setting the new Housatonic Valley Regional High School record. The previous school record of 43 feet eight inches was set by Don Hurlbutt in 1967.
The HVRHS junior was pleased with the result of his first triple jump of the day June 14.Photo by Riley Klein
Conditions were rainy for the meet with the grounds crew utilizing a leaf blower to dry the track between events. Labbadia said he had experienced similar weather at the Berkshire League championships in May, and he won the triple jump there, so he was confident.
“It doesn’t bother me,” said Labbadia of the rain, noting he was excited to be back at Willow Brook Park. “Being here makes me jump farther... I just have to make sure I’m thinking about everything without overthinking.”
Labbadia, a rising senior at HVRHS, wrote his capstone on the triple jump. In his research, his mother explained, he studied and broke down the biomechanics of the event.
Labbadia was injured during track season his freshman year. His sophomore year, he took up triple jumping. He ended his junior year with a 9th-place finish against the top competition in New England.Photo by Riley Klein
Two days before the championships, he made a bold change to his jumping approach — switching from a “right, right, left” sequence to “left, left, right” — and it paid off.
“I’m glad I switched my feet,” he said after the result. “I’m happy with my performance.”
Once all the jumpers from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont had finished, Labbadia’s distance held for 9th place.
The triple jump gold medal winner was Amar Skeete, sophomore from Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, who jumped 48 feet two inches. The 2nd place finisher was Mitch Krasco of Mahar Regional High School in Orange, Massachusetts, with a distance of 46 feet two and a half inches. Jessie Singleton Jr., junior at Bloomfield High School in Connecticut, placed 3rd with a distance of 45 feet ten inches.
Labbadia was the first HVRHS athlete to compete at the New England meet since Sydney Segalla in 2022. Track coach Alan Lovejoy said he cannot recall another HVRHS male athlete qualifying since he became coach in 2009.
Hosted at Willow Brook Park in New Britain, the 2025 New England track and field championship was held in Connecticut for the first time in three years. Events took place all day Saturday, June 14. Full results are available at nestiming.comPhoto by Riley Klein
Rain came down heavy in the morning June 14, but conditions improved as the day went on. The crew used leaf blowers to dry the track between events.Photo by Riley Klein
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
‘The Laundry Room,’ a painting by Maira Kalman from the exhibition “Shaker Outpost: Design, Commerce, and Culture” at the Shaker Museum’s pop-up space in Chatham.
“I always approach my work from an aspect of love,” she said. “I fall in love with a face or a chair or a shoe. And then it is my pleasure to paint. That is how I approached the pieces I chose for the installation. They spoke to me. They SANG to me.”
Her selections for the Shaker Outpost include clothing of daily life — hats, shoes, socks, gloves — alongside objects shaped by hand and necessity. A pair of bear fur mittens, a glove form, a forged iron stake. Items that once moved through ordinary days now sit in conversation with Kalman’s paintings, which draw from the museum’s photographic archive. “As I looked at the photo archive, I gravitated to images that made me happy,” she said. “The Shaker work is so full of delicate elegance and superb utility. I love that.”
Maira KalmanPhoto by Kimisa H.
The idea of utility that is elevated to poetry is at the center of the show. Kalman described the impulse to “edit your life” after encountering Shaker design, and here that instinct becomes both curatorial method and invitation. “After seeing their work, you want to run home and throw out everything you have,” she said. “You want to edit your life. You only want what is essential. The simplicity and beauty of Shaker design are rarely equaled… They have wit and wisdom. Clarity and kindness. They are practical and they sing. You just cannot go wrong.”
The exhibition also marks a return. After more than two years at the Kinderhook Knitting Mill, the museum’s programming comes back to Chatham — if only temporarily — before the opening of its future permanent home.
The pop-up exhibition at 4 Depot Square in downtown Chatham extends beyond the gallery walls. A small, carefully assembled General Store — also curated by Kalman — offers books, textiles, notecards and handmade goods by local artisans. Like the Shakers’ own public-facing shops, it blurs the line between commerce and ethos, asking what it means to buy something made with care. It is, deliberately, a place to linger.
Kalman sees the Shakers as kindred spirits. “Even though my mother was a Russian born Jew, she could have been a Shaker,” she said. “But then all of the women in my family could have been. A sense of beauty, care, simplicity and love imbued all that they did. They were frugal and fastidious.”
That inheritance feels newly relevant. “Today we have a very fast-moving day. Never enough time,” she said. “And I think that the sense of taking time to make beauty resonates very much these days. It restores the soul.”
Kalman worked closely with her son, Alex Kalman, on this exhibit. “Working with my son Alex Kalman on this installation has been a joy,” she said. “He curates for his museum MMUSEUMM, in a defunct elevator shaft on Cortland Alley in Manhattan. He is always looking for the intersection of humor and human expression and endeavor. That is how I approach the installation at the Shaker Outpost. Everything should matter.”
Shaker Outpost: Design, Commerce, and Culture runs through July 5 at 4 Depot Square in Chatham, with subsequent installations by Paula Greif and Kiki Smith later in the year. For more information, visit shakermuseum.us.
The Ticking Tent Spring Market returns to Spring Hill Vineyards in New Preston on May 2.
Juarez is president of Christina Juarez & Co., a communications and business development consultancy. Reynaert is market director at ELLE DECOR, an interiors stylist and author of “The Layered Home,” which he will sign at the event.
Benjamin Reynaert and Christina Juarez, co-founders of The Ticking Tent. Their one-day Spring Market returns to New Preston on May 2 at Spring Hill Vineyards on Bee Brook Road.Jennifer Almquist
“The Ticking Tent is about reimagining the joy of discovery — bringing together antiques dealers, artisans and design enthusiasts in a setting where community and creativity thrive,” Reynaert said.
Among returning vendors is Rhonda Eleish of Eleish Van Breems Home, with shops in New Preston, Roxbury, Westport and Nantucket. “The Ticking Tent is a fun event where you can shop curated goods, meet friends and enjoy the setting,” she said.
The market partners with ELLE DECOR as national media sponsor, along with Home & Garden CT & NY, Connecticut Cottages & Gardens, New England Home CT and Litchfield Magazine.
For information and tickets, visit thetickingtent.com or follow @thetickingtent.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
