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The Woodstock Academy gymnastics team proudly displays its seventh State Open championship plaque in eight years after winning it at New Milford High School March 6.
Ali Crescimanno on the balance beam at the State Open championship at New Milford High School.Photos by Marc Allard/The Woodstock Academy
Centaurs win
state crown
The trophies just continue to pour in for the Woodstock Academy gymnastics program.
The Centaurs already finished with another spotless regular season, won their 10th straight Eastern Connecticut Conference championship and ninth straight Class S championship.
March 6, the Centaurs added another plaque to the collection.
They won their seventh Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference State Open championship in the last eight years, 142.475 – 135.350, over Fairfield-Ludlowe High School at New Milford High School.
“We were working for it all season, losing last year, coming back this year. It was really amazing for all of us, especially the seniors. We’re pretty proud of ourselves,” said senior Maddie Grube.
The State Open was the one that got away from the Centaurs last year when they lost to Greenwich.
Woodstock Academy coach Kasey Tocchio said it was special to take back the State Open title despite what she described as an “interesting” day.
“We started out strong and there were a lot of good plusses (Wednesday). Even though, individually, everybody didn’t put it together for themselves. We still had some good routines in there,” Tocchio said.
The Centaurs showed Tocchio what they were capable of earlier in the season when they finished with a 146.85 score in the opening meet against Norwich Free Academy and the Killingly Cooperative.
“We haven’t really come close to that since,” senior Ali Crescimanno said. “We’ve hit 143 quite a few times, but we’ve been stuck there. We just need to hit our routines, hit our bonus and not count so many mistakes. If we do that, we can get right back up there.”
Since that first meet, the highest Woodstock Academy has scored is a 144.8 on Feb. 11, again against Killingly.
“I don’t think we’ve had our best day,” Tocchio said. “I think our first meet of the season kind of showed where we could go, but we haven’t really got back there yet. I think we can put it all together and really hit big.”
It looked like that possibly could be the case early at New Milford.
The Centaurs started on vault and Crescimanno finished with a 9.425 routine. Emily Arters finished with a 9.1, Lydia Taft a 9.0 and Grube an 8.9 to give them a 36.475 total as a team.
But things unraveled a bit on bars.
Taft (9.05) and Jenna Davidson (8.75) didn’t have the best bar routines.
Crescimanno again performed well, leading the team and finishing best in the field with a 9.5.
Crescimanno finished with a 36.0 individual total, second to Merritt Stevenson of Trumbull who won the individual All-Around with a 36.3 score.
“My first three events went well,” Crescimanno said. “My beam routine (8.7) was the best I’ve done all season.”
Crescimanno was in the lead going into the final event, the floor, but fell and finished with an 8.375.
She wasn’t the only one with foibles.
Taft and Grube both suffered through tough beam routines and finished with 8.45 and 7.35 totals respectively.
“We had some mistakes on every event. I’m going to go back into the gym on Friday and really clean that up,” Grube said.
Those miscues kept things interesting among the team members.
“It was neck-and-neck between (Crescimanno and Davidson) because one would be off and the other would hit a good one. I really want to see all three of them (with Taft) have an awesome meet and see what happens. They are all so high-scoring and we haven’t really put it all together yet,” Tocchio said. “Hopefully, they can figure it all out. All three of them need to keep taking care of their bodies.”
Davidson, the ECC champ, finished third in the State Open with a 35.875 total. She was best on the beam with a 9.3.
Taft placed fifth with a 35.475 total.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy