caption:
Leader
Jenna Davidson captured the ECC individual title last year and returns to lead the Woodstock Academy Centaurs this season. The Woodstock Academy file photo.
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The legacy.
The Woodstock Academy gymnastics team always has to go up against, not only its opponents, but its history.
Ten straight ECC titles, nine consecutive state championships and just as a kicker, seven State Open championships in the last eight years.
“I hope we can live up to that. We don’t want to go out early,” said Centaur senior Jenna Davidson. “We have to get bigger skills, honestly, and the people who do compete All-Around have to make sure their routines are solid, no mistakes.”
The difficulty level may be raised a bit this season.
The Centaurs lost Ali Crescimanno, Lydia Taft, Abigail Vaida and Maddie Grube from last year’s team that also finished third in New England.
“It’s not easy at all,” Woodstock Academy coach Kasey Tocchio said of losing the four seniors. “They were four great seniors who really led the team and were great scorers on top of that. It’s a big number to lose. We haven’t lost a big number like that in a while.”
But all is not lost. The Centaurs do have Davidson back who is the defending ECC individual champ.
Davidson just got past Taft in last year’s league championship, 36.5 – 36.
“The target is on my back a little bit,” Davidson said with a laugh. “I’m going to try to carry the team if I can with the other captains. We’re going to try and get everyone on the same page and do our best.”
Those other captains, in addition to Davidson, are fellow seniors Emily Arters and Elise Boisvert.
“Jenna, hopefully, will be as good a scorer as she was last year and Emily Arters is peaking on vault and floor and has upgraded her bar routine. She has worked really hard and will be a big scorer for us,” Tocchio said.
Boisvert, who was injured last season, returns and brings a lot of leadership and some really good skills on the floor.
The Centaurs are also blessed with another strong freshman.
Taylor Markley will make her debut for the blue-and-gold this season.
“She is an amazing freshman, a level-10 gymnast this year. She is on the mend from an injury right now, so, hopefully, by midseason she will be back to peak form. She will be another Paige (Stuyniski) or Grace (Logan),” Tocchio said. “We’re very excited about her and we’re just hoping that she stays healthy.”
Estella Douglas returns as a junior as do sophomores Lindsey Gillies and Hannah Bell. The freshmen class, in addition to Markley, includes Madison Martinez and Bella Webb.
“It gives us a little more,” Tocchio said of the depth. “You need four scorers.”
Davidson said it’s a group that will have to work for everything that it receives.
“We think the year will be a lot of fun. We don’t have the strongest team that we’ve ever had, but it’s OK because it’s our last year so we’re going to have fun and do our best,” Davidson said.
Davidson said her goal is to just score well for the team, get into the 9’s in her events and, hopefully, the high 9’s.
“It’s all about the team, the team’s all-around score,” Davidson said.
The expectations are high.
But the Centaurs are familiar with them,
“It gets a little nerve-wracking,” Tocchio admits. “The pressure has always been there, this year more than ever. The girls have to work really hard for it and we said that last year because we lost Grace and Paige from the year before and the team had to regroup and find their way. They had to realize everyone counted and they couldn’t depend on some big scores. I think the girls on this team have learned that lesson already and we, hopefully, can keep building.”
Tocchio said the key might be how well the team performs early and if it can build confidence going into the larger meets.
“The goal is to be consistent and find that consistency within the team that we have this year because it is so different. We need to take the first meet and build from there and learn what this team is capable of,” Tocchio said.
The Centaurs are scheduled to open on the road in Glastonbury on Jan. 3.
Schedule
Fri., Jan. 3 Glastonbury Away TBA
Mon., Jan. 6 East Lyme Co-op, Old Lyme Home 6 p.m.
Wed., Jan. 8 Stonington Away 6:30 p.m.
Mon., Jan. 13 Killingly, Ell. Home 6 p.m.
Mon., Jan. 27 NFA, Fitch Home 6 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 1 NFA Away 3 p.m.
Mon., Feb. 3 Kill., Ston. Home 6 p.m.
Feb. 10 ECC Championship Home 6 p.m.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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POMFRET — The Pomfret School girls’ basketball team took part in the Holiday Tournament at Deerfield Academy and came back with two losses.
In game one fell to Buckingham, Browne and Nichols School in the semifinals of the Deerfield Academy Holiday tournament. Sel Gonzalez led Pomfret with 18 points.
BB&N 7 27 40 54
Pomfret 6 12 25 36
Pomfret Scorers: Sel Gonzalez 18 points; Tay Guirantes 8 points; Grace Bullied 4 points; McKinley White 4 points. Pomfret fell to Choate Rosemary Hall 46- 35 in the third-place game of the tourney of the Deerfield Academy Holiday tournament. McKinley White led Pomfret with 10 points. Pomfret had 7 scorers in the game.
Choate 16 24 34 46
Pomfret 9 18 31 35
Pomfret Scorers: Molly Vincent: 2 points; Sel Gonzalez: 8 points; Brooke Zahansky:2 points; Tay Guirantes-:4 points; Grace Bullied: 6 points; McKinley White: 10 points; Teagan O’Hara: 3.
In the first round of the Deerfield Academy Girls’ Basketball Holiday Tournament, Pomfret School defeated Vermont Academy 54-44. Sel Gonzalez led Pomfret with 15 points, while McKinley White added 12 for the Griffins. Tay Guirantes, Teagan O’Hara, and Grace Bullied scored 9, 8, and 7 points respectively to help the Griffins balanced scoring on the night.
Pomfret School 11 25 33 55
Vermont Academy 9 16 32 44
Pomfret Scorers: Sel Gonzalez: 15; Brooke Zahansky: 3; Tay Guirantes: 9; Grace Bullied: 7; McKinley White: 12; Teagan O’Hara: 8; Pomfret’s record stands at; 1 win, 4 losses.
By Patrick Burke
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Drill, Skill Clinic
set for Dec. 30
Putnam Science Academy’s Winter Break Drills & Skills Clinic will be held Monday, Dec. 30 at the school. The basketball clinic runs from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. for boys and girls ages 6-18.
Mustangs coach Tom Espinosa, who has led the team to a 296-74 record and five straight appearances in the National Prep School Tournament Championships, will lead the clinic with PSA assistant coaches Josh Scraba and Kevin Donovan.
The cost is $50 and includes lunch for all participants.
For more information or to register, visit fatcatsevents.wixsite.com/psadrillsandskills.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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Lots of hockey. Little in the way of practice.
“We had one practice this past week on Thursday. One practice and four games in a row, that’s not the ratio we should be looking at. We should be looking at four practices, one game,” said Woodstock Academy coach Kevin Bisson.
Tell that to Mother Nature. The weather has played a significant role.
After the Centaurs suffered a 6-4 loss to the Eastern Connecticut Eagles Dec. 16 in the season opener for both, snow and ice cancelled practices for the Centaurs Dec. 17 and 18.
Woodstock Academy practiced Dec. 19 and then returned to the ice for a 3-2 overtime win over TriTown in Enfield Dec. 20 before falling to Branford at the Northford Ice Pavilion Dec. 21, 6-3.
“It’s extremely difficult to make adjustments, make corrections, do those teaching points without the physical reps in practice,” Bisson said.
The Centaurs (1-2, 1-1 Nutmeg Conference) got the best of Branford early.
Branford took the lead just three minutes into the game but the Centaurs tied it just about halfway through the opening period on a goal by junior Guerin Favreau off a Doug Newton assist.
Jake Starr put the Centaurs ahead with his first goal of the season with 3:15 left in the opening period but Branford tied it with a power play goal with 1:50 to play.
Woodstock Academy went ahead, 3-2, just before the end of the first period when Favreau put in his sixth goal of the season, unassisted, with 24 seconds left.
“We came out flying, guns blazing, looking good. We were right there and I know we have a strong team and can compete with the best of them,” Bisson said.
Branford won the Div. II state championship last year and in the second and third periods showed why.
The Centaurs sometime bad habits began to haunt them with miscommunication on coverages and penalties became a factor.
Woodstock Academy essentially is relying on six forwards and when the two lines are altered for penalty killing, cohesion can become a problem.
It allowed Branford to score three unanswered goals.
“Honestly, the back-to-back (games) started to catch up to our legs in the third period and when you are relying on six forwards and you start taking penalties, that taxes you even more,” Bisson said.
In addition, the offense went away. The Centaurs scored the three first-period goals on six shots.
“The message in between periods was ‘get into the offensive zone and shoot.’ One out of every two shots went in during the first period. We come out in the second period and took only two shots on net. For a team that scored three goals on six shots, how we don’t put more rubber on the goalie is beyond me,” Bisson said.
It has, however, been the rule more than the exception early.
Both Branford and TriTown took double the shots of the Centaurs in the last two games.
Against TriTown Dec. 20, the Centaurs fell behind in the first period, 2-0.
They rallied in the second on a Favreau goal off a Newton rebound and tied it with 7:26 left when Kyle Brennan scored off assists by Brendan Hill and Devin Chadwick.
It sent the game into overtime where Favreau put the finishing touches on the win 7:04 into the extra period.
With Brennan and Newton jamming in front of the net, Favreau got the puck in the corner and worked his way past a couple TriTown defenders, came around the circle and wristed a shot. The puck rebounded away from the goalie who went down trying to find it, but Brennan was able to indirectly kick it toward Favreau.
It was a typical first game of the season for both the Centaurs and Eastern Connecticut Eagles.
Highly charged and full of infractions.
“The beginning of the game was chaotic for both teams really, probably a bit more on our side because of the penalties being taken,” Bisson said. “Both teams had the extremely high energy of the first game of the season. You can certainly attribute the penalties taken by both teams, in part, to that.”
As a result, the goals came often with the Eagles coming away with a victory over the Centaurs at Dayton Arena on the campus of Connecticut College in New London Dec. 16.
The Centaurs scored on their first shift of the game when Newton got a pass to Nick Chubbuck who sent it along to Favreau. Favreau put the puck into the top corner just 34 seconds into the game.
But the Eagles responded with a goal of their own just a minute later and then went ahead two minutes after that on a power play goal.
Woodstock Academy was then whistled for something it never incurred all of last year, a 5-minute major, just 4:15 into the contest. The Centaurs were also hit with another 5-minute major in the third period, both incidents were for boarding.
Eastern Connecticut took advantage of the first boarding call with another goal to make it 3-1.
Newton brought the Centaurs back within one on a goal off an assist from Hill. The two teams then traded goals in the final two minutes. Newton got his second of the game for Woodstock Academy with 41 seconds left in the first period with assists from both Chris Thibault and Austen LeDonne to make it, 4-3, going into the second period.
Eastern Connecticut scored on the power play and added a second just 1:38 later to build to a 3-goal advantage.
“That just put us too far behind to keep digging out of the hole,” Bisson said. “You can’t shoot yourself in the foot that many times and expect to come out good.”
The Centaurs incurred 30 minutes of penalties in a 45 minute game; the Eagles had 20 minutes’ worth of infractions.
“For two periods of hockey, we were playing a man down. Both teams were guilty of infractions all over the place, ours were just more poorly timed,” said Bisson.
Favreau finished the scoring with his second goal of the game off a Sonny Neilson assist in the third period.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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