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Honored
The Woodstock Academy freshmen girls’ cross-country team was honored after its second-place finish at the Wickham Park Invitational. Kneeling, left to right: Sydney Lord and Madison Bates. Back: Coach Joe Banas, Brooke Bergevin, Tessa Brown, Shannon Cunniff, Delaney Canty, Carah Bruce, and Coach Josh Welch. Photo courtesy of Peter Lusa/The Woodstock Academy
The ECC championship cross-country championship races come up Oct. 17 and Woodstock Academy girls’ coach Joe Banas is optimistic.
The Centaurs have a runner with a chance to bring home an ECC individual title when the girls’ race gets underway at 1 p.m. at the Norwich Golf Course.
Sophomore Linsey Arends has had a very successful season thus far.
“I’m very hopeful as any coach would be for their athlete. She has beaten everyone up to this point,” Banas said.
Everyone that is except defending champion, Jordan Malloy, from Bacon Academy.
Malloy was in a boot when the Centaurs faced the Bobcats two weeks ago.
Like Arends, Malloy is a sophomore, and is apparently back and healthy.
“I don’t know how strong she is,” Banas said. “We were also curious (Saturday) because we heard NFA freshman (Eliana Duclos) was supposed to run and she didn’t. I’m wondering if she will run at the ECC’s. Madison (Sjostrom) from East Lyme is solid too but I think (Arends) has just as good a shot as anyone.”
The team, itself, will have its work cut out for it.
The Centaurs found out how solid East Lyme is this past week.
The Centaurs will go in with a 1-2 record in Division I of the ECC after a 24-35 loss to the Vikings Oct. 11.
Arends finished first in the race and got a little bonus. She set the course record at Rocky Neck State Park with a winning time of 19 minutes, 34 seconds.
Arends was running with Sjostrom for the first half of the race.
“You could tell that Madison was struggling somewhat while Linsey looked fresh and in full control,” Banas said.
Sjostrom finished 16 seconds back of Arends in second while Woodstock Academy junior Stella DiPippo was third in 20:11.
The next five runners were all from East Lyme.
“I think it will be East Lyme, E.O. Smith and Guilford as the top three teams in Class MM,” Banas said. “East Lyme coach) Mike (Flynn) runs quite the program there.”
The state championship races are Oct. 26 at Wickham Park.
Iris Bazinet and Meg Gohn finished ninth and 10th overall for the Centaurs against East Lyme.
As a result of the East Lyme race, the Centaurs varsity team did not compete in the Wickham Park Invitational Saturday.
Instead, Banas just had his runners run in between meets at the Invite just to get a feel for the course.
The freshmen team did run.
And did pretty well.
“Awesome,” said Banas.
Woodstock Academy’s freshmen group finished second to Whitinsville Christian in the team competition.
Tessa Brown was the first across in 15th place followed by Brooke Bergevin (19th); Madison Bates (22nd); Carah Bruce (31st); Shannon Cuniff (32nd) and Sydney Lord (36th).
Banas said the finish caught him a bit by surprise. He was called to the scorer’s tent after the race, and honestly didn’t know why. He hadn’t seen the results yet. Upon his arrival, he and his team received a nice surprise when they were handed the second-place trophy. “Assistant coach) Josh (Welch) and I are both so proud of them. I think this will be a confidence booster and they were so excited. It’s going to help for years to come,” Banas said.
Boys’ Cross Country
The Woodstock Academy boys’ cross-country team lost to the East Lyme Vikings at Rocky Neck State Park Oct. 11, 19-44.
Junior Ethan Aspiras put together a strong effort for the Centaurs (3-6, 0-3 ECC Division I) with a second-place finish, just six seconds back of winner Chris Abbey (16:59) for East Lyme (6-0, 3-0).
“Ethan ran a good race,” said Woodstock Academy coach Peter Lusa. “He was a bit slow at the one-mile mark and was outkicked over the last half-mile. But I think he’s looking forward to a good effort at the ECC championship.”
Hamilton Barnes finished 11th for Woodstock Academy and Evan Gianfriddo placed 13th.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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