New Haven — When an athlete comes out for indoor track, there are a few directions he or she can go: throws, sprints — sprinters can sometimes morph into hurdlers or jumpers — or distances.

"It's kind of like, 'See if you like this,'" East Lyme High School girls' coach Carl Reichard said. "It's kind of hit or miss. We don't have any deep, analytical algorithm. At the beginning we have real general training. You get a chance to see what they can do."

When Sjodin Fedikovich joined the East Lyme team as freshman last season, she picked the pole vault.

On Saturday, she won the Class L state indoor track championship in the event, leaping 8 feet.

The Vikings finished first, second and tied for fourth in the pole vault, in fact, to give them 19.75 points toward a team total of 46.75 points, good for third place overall.

And that was on a day East Lyme competed without one of their top sprinters in junior Katherine Harris, who was ill.

Also in the pole vault, senior Megan Delillo was second at 8-0 and senior Anna McCusker tied for fourth at 7-6.

"I didn't expect to get first place," said Fedikovich, whose first name is pronounced "Shaw-dine."

"The adrenaline was definitely going; that really helped. Staying calm and having fun. I was just like really shocked (to win)."

Why the pole vault?

"I like how difficult it is," said Fedikovich, who finished fourth in the Eastern Connecticut Conference in the pole vault behind a trio of Norwich Free Academy jumpers. "It was something new to try."

East Lyme's Darya Mikusova was second in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.90 seconds.

The Vikings' 4x800 relay team of Sophie Taylor, Caroline Real, Gilly Goodwin and Ellie McCoy was second in 10 minutes, 00.74 seconds; the sprint medley relay team of Margaret Dunne, Mikusova, Taylor and McCoy was sixth in 4:35.58; and the 4x400 relay of Dunne, Taylor, Real and Mikusova was third in 4:18.41.

Other local place-winners in the girls' meet were East Lyme's Savannah Soleau, fifth in the shot put (34-8), and Sofia Riker, fifth in the long jump (15-7).

Local place-winners in the boys' meet were Fitch's Tom Joyner, fourth in the shot put (45-1.5); New London's Marquis Whyte, fifth in the 600 (1:24.96); New London's Rashawn Wright, fifth in the 1,000 (2:42.09); Fitch's Orlando Galarza, sixth in the 300 (37.86); New London's Daniel Duperval, sixth in the shot put (43-3.5); and New London's Langston Paige sixth in the high jump (5-8).

New London's sprint medley relay team of Clayton Smith, Ali Harkness, Whyte and Wright was fifth in 3:48.76.

Windsor won the girls' team title with 66 points and Hillhouse won the boys' title with 76.

v.fulkerson@theday.com