2 Centaurs qualify for New
England championship
Colton Sallum knew he was close. The Woodstock Academy senior knew he was in the mix to finish in the top 25 at the CIAC State Open cross-country meet to move on to the New England championship.
But where was he in the mix?
“The whole time, people were yelling at me 23, 24, I didn’t know what position I was in. You can never trust anyone’s math. The pressure I felt that race and having it pay off at the end was the best feeling in the world,” Sallum said.
He finished right on the cusp, 25th, and will compete in the New England championship on Nov. 9.
Fellow senior Christian Menounos also qualified for the New England’s but for him, it was the completion of a different goal.
It will be his third straight New England championship.
Sallum did not come into high school with high aspirations. Quite the opposite.
“Colton’s initial time trial was around 31 minutes and even in the realm of freshmen, that was not impressive. Even Christian came in at 22 or 23 minutes which is OK, but neither looked like standouts. We had a conversation early and I told them they could be whatever they wanted to be with the right amount of work; it’s not all talent, a lot of it is hard work and Colton embodies that more than anyone- ever,” coach Josh Welch said.
Even at Thursday’s meet, Welch said  some fellow runners were commenting on how Sallum doesn’t look like the fast cross-country runner that he is.
“He’s not your prototypical distance runner kid but it’s his heart, and the amount of work and passion that he puts into what he does,” Welch said.
Sallum said a crucial point in the race for him came around Mile 2 where he saw a pack of runners just ahead of him which had begun to peel away from him.
“I knew I could not let them do that, I couldn’t let them go. I had to work to maintain my pace with them and then I passed a couple in the pack but I had to work hard not to lose them,” Sallum said.
Sallum did see his teammate just ahead of him until there were about 1000 meters left in the race and Menounos found another gear.
The senior was out in front of everyone for the first mile and in the top three for half the race.
“I made some moves early on, died out and suffered the consequences. I need to be more strategic with my pacing but it could have been worse, I could have not qualified. I can’t be mad about it because I fought back and made New England’s and it was worth it to try. Coming into the race, I was pretty sure even if I did die out, I would qualify. It was my senior year, last State Open, try something different,” Menounos said.
For Menounos, it’s back to square one.  “I’m going to stick to my pace strongly, not go out too fast or too controlling at the beginning of the race. I want to be patient. I think that’s the key. I need to counter at a moment that is going to push me ahead and not do so too early. Doing that will lead me to a huge breakout race. I want to leave this race feeling it’s the best I’ve had all season, maybe even in my high school career,” Menounos said.
One other runner, junior Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain, competed in the CIAC girls’ State Open and finished in 91st in her inaugural try.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
Woodstock Academy

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