By Ron P. Coderre

This week’s RPC sporty shoutout is sent along to Jeff Coderre of Thompson.  A former Tourtellotte standout athlete, today Coderre enjoys watching his kids compete and playing a little Jack Benny sports.  Enjoy this week’s column, Jeff. 

The Wildcat Invitational is the premier high school golf tournament in Eastern Connecticut and probably throughout Connecticut.  Each year high school golfers look forward to competing in the granddaddy of all events as a preview to potential matchups on the State level.

The 2014 Invitational featured 24 boys’ teams vying for the championship and a number of girls’ teams competing in a nine-hole championship match.  The overall boys’ title went to perennial power Xavier High School from Middletown with a cumulative score of 311.  Glastonbury finished second two strokes off the winning score at 313.  Rounding out the top five was East Catholic (324), Berlin (336) and Tolland (353).  

Thanks to a stellar performance by Drew Aitken of Killingly who posted a 74 over the 18-hole Mohegan Sun Country Club at Pautipaug par 72 layout, Killingly High School was the top local finisher in seventh place with a respectable score of 359.  Aitken’s 74 placed the sophomore sensation third overall in the individual competition.  He was four strokes off the winning pace of 70 fired by Austin Forauer of Berlin.  Second place went to Bryan Stanton of Xavier with a 73.

Joining Drew Aitken in helping the Redmen to the seventh slot was his twin brother John Aitken with an 84 good for a tie in 17th place.  Spencer Salvas of Putnam was the second northeastern Connecticut individual finisher as he posted a 77 to tie him for seventh place with Joe Ko of Marianapolis who also carded a 77.  Tourtellotte’s ace, Mike Jezierski finished tied for 20th place, posting an 85.  The last local to make the top 25 was Nick Harrington of Parish Hill who tied at 23rd with a score of 86.

In the team competition Woodstock finished behind seventh place Killingly in 11th place with a team score of 378.  Tourtellotte captured the 13th spot with a cumulative score of 390, while the Tigers’ Thompson neighbor Marianapolis was one stroke behind in 14th place at 391.  Plainfield was 23rd with a score of 488.

In the female competition Woodstock Academy represented the area very well as Roxanne Garceau fired a highly competitive 50 to finish one stroke off the pace in second place overall.  The individual winner was Katie Strickland of Norwich Free Academy with a 49.  Woodstock placed golfers in the fourth, fifth and sixth slots in a great team effort.  Sothea Semmelrock (54) was fourth, Elaina Becher (60) was fifth and Grace Yang (63) tied for sixth.

All of the teams are in the process of closing out their regular season schedules and looking forward to State tournament competition.

Plainfield Raising Eyebrows

The Plainfield Panthers baseball team, which raised its record to 15-0 with a 1-0 squeaker over neighboring rival Killingly, is beginning to finally receive its due recognition on a statewide level.  Coach Jason Chiavaras’ Panthers cracked both the New Haven Register and Hartford Courant Top 10 polls last week.

Following victories over then #1 Waterford and #10 Montville, the Panthers vaulted over both Eastern Connecticut Conference rivals moving into seventh place in the New Haven Register poll and fifth place in the Hartford Courant poll.  Waterford, which has fallen on tough times losing twice to Montville is likely to fall out of the Top 10 this coming week, while Montville, 9th in the Courant is likely to move up also.

It’s all very interesting to watch these statewide polls when local teams are involved.  Plainfield has been receiving some great pitching from Mike Esposito, Jordan Federer and Kyle Boarman.  Esposito and Federer along with Garet Griffin and Steve Jankowski have also been providing the lumber in producing timely runs as the Panthers are also playing solid defense.  

With six games remaining on the regular schedule it will be interesting to watch Plainfield and see how they react under pressure.  Following the 20-game schedule they enter the rugged and highly competitive Eastern Connecticut Tournament before turning their attention to the CIAC Tournament.

Run For Fun

The warm weather has returned and so have Bob Mayer and Jimi Gothreau.  This dynamic duo gets energized at this time of the year and begins to promote healthy running for local individuals even as it gets more difficult for the two of them to get past the aches and pains associated with aging.

Gothreau and Mayer are encouraging local residents to drop by the West Thompson Dam or West Thompson Lake if you prefer, and get in a little “Fun Run” each Wednesday evening.  The festivities, which started on May 14 and continue through Sept. 17, begin promptly at 6:15 p.m.  People from the very young to the very mature are welcome to join and jog, walk, run or race over the scenic rolling “traffic free” 1.44 or 3.1 mile loops.

“Make every Wednesday your ‘dam fun runs’ night,” said Mayer and Gothreau simultaneously.  Anyone who completes three or more runs over the summer will receive their very own “Dam Fun Runs” T-shirt.  And the nice part of all this activity is that everything is free, including the T-shirt.

College Season Ends Abruptly

It’s been a great spring for college baseball but like all good things, they have to come to an end, just ask the Boston Bruins.  That’s another subject for another time.

Back to college baseball, UConn-Avery Point and Eastern Connecticut State University enjoyed successful springs, winning their conference regular season crowns.  Unfortunately both were bounced from NCAA competition in an unruly fashion, losing the first two games of their respective playoffs.

Avery Point went out with a whimper losing to Westchester Community College and Mercyhust, two teams they had beaten during the season.  ECSU, ranked #1 in the region was beaten by its neighbor down in New London, Mitchell College 4-3.  The Mariners were ranked #8 in the region.  Adding insult to injury the Warriors were beaten by MIT in the loser’s bracket contest, sending them packing back to Willimantic.

One good note out of the season and tournament, former Plainfield Panther Nick Ververis ended his stellar career at Eastern with a 15-game hitting streak.

RPC’s Closing thought For The Day: Over tip your breakfast waitress.

(If you have sports news worthy of publication please e-mail RPC at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) 

 

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