Montville — Darrel Wattely just set the 100-meter record at the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship, technically becoming the fastest runner in league history.

He ran to the fence surrounding the track at Montville High School, where he is a senior, and hugged his grandfather, Clinton Helligar, tightly.

Wattely was then asked if he shared any advice with his sister Shatajah Wattely, a sophomore getting ready to compete in the 400.

"I don't want to show her my secrets," Wattely said with a smile. "One day I will."

But maybe Shatajah Wattely had a few secrets of her own.

Immediately following her brother's win, Shatajah won the 400 in 59.08 seconds. It gave the family three ECC titles on the day - as Darrel took the 100 (10.89 seconds) and the 200 (22.21). Shatajah was second in the 200 to Ledyard's Emily Loy by four-hundredths of a second (25.53-25.57).

"I'm already there," Shatajah Wattely said of her brother's proclamation that she still had a few seasons remaining to have her turn.

Shatajah, who wore pink Nike cleats and black-and-white striped socks with multi-colored skeletons on them, arrived at Montville last year and competed in cross country and girls' basketball before finding her niche on the track.

"Now this is my first sport," she said. "Before anything."

Darrel's 100 record broke the mark of 10.96 set by New London's Mike Morgan in 2005.

"I saw Ricardo (DaSilva of NFA) coming from the side. I caught him like in the middle (of the race) and I knew I had him," Wattely said. "It was a really good race. It feels real good."

Checking in, checking out

• More than one competitor had issues checking out of one event to compete in another in Saturday's meet, among them Fitch senior Marissa Lowe.

Lowe won the 300 hurdles and sprinted from the finish line, almost without stopping, to the triple jump pit. Lowe was on the verge of being disqualified for missing the trials in the event, but got one jump in — barely with enough juice to get down the runway — good enough to reach the finals. She was fifth in the event after her two hurdles wins.

"That has never happened before," Lowe said. "I wasn't expecting the 300 (hurdles) to take so long. I was extremely tired."

Stonington's Megan Rose Chapman had much the same problem while trying to compete in the finals of the javelin and the discus at the same time. She was in the third flight in both events, which were being contested simultaneously.

Chapman had to take her three qualifying throws in the discus in rapid fire to reach the finals, then go straight to the javelin final. She returned for the discus final.

Chapman, however, the No. 1 seed with the top-ranked discus throw in the state this season (120 feet, 8 inches) became unnerved in the rush. She landed only two of her six discus throws without fouling, including one errant throw which hit the pole behind her and ricochetted into the protective netting.

Chapman finished second in the discus at 104-0, edged by Plainfield's Kayla Robataille with a throw of 104-2. She was also fourth in the shot put and ninth in the javelin.

"It's really hard when you have to do both things at the same time," said Chapman, who will be the top seed in the discus at the Class M state championship. "I never had a problem with it before. I never had to rush to get to something."

NFA coach Kara Kochanski-Vendola said the ECC meet is good practice for all the athletes in that respect heading into the state meet.

"You have to follow the rules (which only allow you to check out of an event for 10 minutes). (One of our girls) was getting ready to check out before and I said, 'Don't check out yet. You have time to take one more throw,'" Kochanski-Vendola said.

"The girls need to take a deep breath ... do what they know they can do."

v.fulkerson@theday.com