New Haven — Stonington junior Ryan Gruczka was the top seed in the boys’ 1,000-meter race at Saturday’s CIAC State Open indoor track and field championships.

He finished third and was happy with his performance.

East Lyme senior Savannah Soleau was the top seed in the girls’ shot put. She finished third and wished she had done better.

Gruczka and Soleau were the region’s top finishers at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.

“The main goal was just to qualify for New Englands after a good week of training and after last week’s good race (he won Class S on Feb. 12),” Gruczka said. “I’m super happy with the result.”

Soleau said, “I definitely wish I did better today, but I mean you have good days and bad days.”

Hall edged Hillhouse 52-48 to win its third Open boys’ title. Stonington finished in a six-way tie for 13th place (10 points).

The Danbury girls outscored Barlow 36-30 to win their third Open title.

Gruczka finished the 1,000 in 2 minutes, 35.6 seconds, just slightly off his winning time at the Class S meet (2:35.20) that helped Stonington win the team title.

“The seeding is a good thing to know just in general being like, okay, I’m pretty close to these guys,” Gruczka said, “but seeing that all the seeds were close together, and I looked at a few of their PRs and everything, I knew there were fast guys (and some) I knew from cross country and past track seasons.”

Xavier’s Eamon Burke won the race in 2:33.67.

“I was just really looking forward to a good finish because to me, the seeding isn’t as important as the final time,” Gruczka said.

Stonington senior Ryan Orr placed fourth in the 1,000 (2:37.35) while NFA senior Michaelly Luc finished sixth in the long jump (20 feet, 6.5 inches).

Soleau threw the shot put 36 feet on Saturday, three feet less than what she threw at the Class L meet on Feb. 12.

“It almost makes me want to get back at them in New Englands and especially in outdoors, too,” Soleau said. “So hopefully I’ll get better and fix what I need.”

Hillhouse’s Olivia O’Connor won the title (39-7.25).

Soleau is still relatively new to the shot. She started her sophomore year with indoors, but lost the 2020 outdoor and 2021 indoor seasons to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think I need to get my feet more underneath me and I need to explode more,” Soleau said about Saturday’s performance. “I felt slow, very slow today.”

The shot put was the most successful girls’ event for area athletes. Bacon Academy senior Jennifer Whipple finished fourth (35-0.5). St. Bernard senior Lindsey Reilly, who was seeded 13th, placed sixth (33-6).

“I think it went pretty well,” Whipple said. “I went over the 35 (foot) distance which was my goal for the year. I went over it last week, too.”

Whipple finished second in the event (36-3) at the Class M meet.

“The goal today was just making New Englands and I did that,” Whipple said. “I was pretty proud with the progression. I started off not as well, but I refocused going into the finals and my final throws I thought were pretty good.”

Stonington senior Nancy Inthasit finished sixth in the girls’ 55 dash (7.43) and teamed with juniors Hannah Anderson and Helena Hoinsky and freshman Iliana Rashlieigh to take fourth in the 1,600 sprint medley relay (4:27.40).

Ledyard freshman Kate Littler placed sixth in the 600 (1:41.08), besting her time of 1:41.55 that seeded her 11th in the event.

Norwich Free Academy junior Alexis Boyer also bested her seed mark in the pole vault. She was seeded 15th and cleared 9-foot-6, six inches better than her season-high to earn sixth place.

n.griffen@theday.com