The Day's Spring All-Area teams to highlight local athletes beginning Friday

The successes of the spring season may be behind us, as we’re now fully immersed in the summer months, but they’re still fresh and they’re easily remembered.

Take, for instance, the words of Old Lyme High School girls’ track and field coach Jan Merrill-Morin upon the Wildcats winning the Class S state championship, the first in team history, on May 29 in New Britain. Merrill-Morin, the former Olympic finalist in the 1,500 meters at the 1976 Games in Montreal, called that day in May “one of those days I won’t forget.”

Now, we celebrate our spring athletes.

The Day’s 2024 Spring All-Area teams will begin running in Friday’s edition, with a total of 10 teams to be published in the coming days. Each day we will honor a Player of the Year and an all-star team from our coverage area in each sport, as selected by our sports staff.

The schedule for publication is as follows: Friday, girls’ lacrosse; Saturday, boys’ lacrosse; Sunday, girls’ golf; Monday, boys’ golf; Tuesday, softball; Wednesday, baseball; Thursday, July 11, girls’ tennis; Friday, July 12, boys’ tennis; Saturday, July 13, girls’ track & field; and Sunday, July 14, boys’ track & field.

Our teams won four state championships this spring, with the Stonington boys’ and girls’ tennis teams and the Old Lyme girls’ tennis team adding to the title won by Merrill-Morin and her girls’ track team. There were numerous other individual triumphs and we can’t wait to bring you those stories.

Thank you, as always, for reading. We hope you enjoy our All-Area coverage as much as we pride ourselves in bringing it to you.