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Qualify
Freshman Linsey Arends was the only Woodstock Academy track and field athlete to qualify for the State Open championship meet. Photo by Marc Allard.
There was only one member of the Woodstock Academy track and field program scheduled to compete in the State Open championship June 3. The event ended too late for this edition.
Freshman Linsey Arends earned herself a spot in the 1,600-meter event with a third-place finish in the Class MM state championship meet May 29.
“Linsey is great to work with because she is talented, but takes coaching very well. As she matures as a runner, she will dial in on the events she is most suited for, and learn to feel out those races in challenging competition better,” said Woodstock Academy coach Josh Welch. “I think this outdoor season helped her get quicker, and brought her mile time down. Coupling that with the right summer training should set her up for a great cross-country season. She is not so speedy for a miler right now, but she is developing strength.”
Arends finished in 5:24.78, bettering her previous best in the mile by almost seven seconds.
The freshman barely missed out on qualifying for two events in the State Open.
She finished seventh in the 3,200-meter in 12:01.53.
Arends was just beaten at the line by Abby McCarthy of Torrington who got the last spot in 12:00.85.
”It was a tough call regarding which event to focus on. In the end that choice was Linsey’s and she felt more confident in the mile. Coach (Joe) Banas and I spent a long time deliberating on which race she would most likely qualify in, and really it’s always a best guess, but I think that was the best race for her given the performance data we had to work with,” Welch said.
Arends did get a little break which opened the door for her to run both events.
Rain came in halfway through the meet and forced the postponement of events like the 3,200-meter from Wednesday to Thursday.
“Splitting the meet over the course of two days gave her a great deal of time to recover from the mile and run the 3,200-meter to try and qualify there as well. She was pulled out a little fast in the 3,200 and was just edged out by a second at the finish as she struggled to hold on,” Welch said.
Junior Marina Monrabal made the finals of the 100-meter dash and placed eighth in 13.02 seconds.
She also participated in the 200-meter where she finished in 27.37, good for 12th place.
“Marina did a great job in both races and set personal bests improving her times in both the 100m and the 200m by a tenth of a second or so. I think in her instance, the conditions on both days were less than ideal, she seems to really respond well to the heat. Considering the data from the meet, almost every athlete ran slower in preliminaries than their seed time and Marina was one of the few who dropped a little more time to get to the finals,” Welch said.
With the exception of Arends, the state championship meet spelled the end to the girls outdoor track season.
“I think we had a great year for a young team,” Welch said. “It has been a couple of years since the Woodstock Academy girls put points on the board at states and we managed to do that this year. We have very few athletes moving on next year, and a batch of new athletes coming in so in that respect I am excited for next year. Hopefully we’ll see some greater participation from athletes in cross country and indoor, continuing on to outdoor, and a batch of new faces over the course of the year.”
Boys
The Woodstock Academy boys’ track team failed to have any of its members qualify for the State Open championship.
But it didn’t mean the Centaurs didn’t see improvement.
Senior Danylo Ntamwemizi stood out in that regard.
Ntamwemizi barely snuck into the Class MM state championship meet with a throw of 41-feet at the ECC championship the week before.
May 29, Ntamwemizi cleared that mark by almost 2 feet, finishing with a toss of 42 feet, 8 1/2 inches to claim a seventh-place finish.
Fellow senior Lucas Couture easily cleared 11 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault.
He tried to go for more, but narrowly missed on three chances at 12-feet and settled for a tie for seventh place.
Kenneth Birlin placed 12th in the 800-meter while Ethan Aspiras struggled against a fast pace at the start of the 3,200-meter event and ended in 15th.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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