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Woodstock Academy coach Joe Banas received a phone call from Linsey Arends’ mother on Friday night.
She wanted to make sure that there would be maps that Linsey could look at prior to running the 41st annual Haddad Windham cross-country Invitational at Windham High Sept. 7.
It was on the same course, just a year ago, that Arends ran her first high school race as a freshman and made a wrong turn.
“I guaranteed her that there will be no way, no how, that she will get lost. I just wanted to make sure that Linsey could sleep because she would have worried especially since it already happened to her,” Banas said.
Arends crossed the finish line in second place in the Varsity 2 race just about a minute behind Kathryn Rodrigues of Wolcott. She also accomplished another goal by breaking the 20-minute mark; she finished in 19 minutes, 56 seconds.
Her time will be adjusted by her coaches, however, since it was only a 3-mile race.
Arends grew a couple of inches over the summer and now stands 5-foot-1. “I have a little longer stride which always helps. I’m still growing so we will see,” Arends said. Her second- place finish was complemented by a fifth-place finish by junior teammate Stella DiPippo.
The two finishes helped the Centaurs place fourth overall as a team behind E.O. Smith, Thomaston and Avon.
DiPippo finished fifth in 20:39 and said the Invitational is just a good chance to get the rust off. Megan Gohn (22:52) finished 29th; Iris Bazinet (24:12) 52nd and Julia Theriaque (24:26) 60th to round out the scoring five.
DiPippo said: “I’m definitely not where I want to be,” she admitted. “I was hoping to finish a lot faster but I had a really bad cramp and when I get that, it affects my breathing. This race did not go too well. I don’t know what I did wrong. I did like what I usually do but we will keep working.”
On the boys’ side of the Haddad Windham cross-country Invitational, a little strategy benefitted Ethan Aspiras.
The Woodstock Academy junior looked like he was mired in the middle of the pack early in the race, but it was all part of a plan that he executed pretty well. He crossed the finish line in sixth place.
“I’m very happy with Ethan. He set goals for himself and I think he’s going to achieve them. This was the first step in the whole thing,” said Woodstock Academy boys’ cross-country coach Peter Lusa.
The Centaurs coaching staff has been working on its runner’s mentality a bit when it comes to running hills.
About a mile into the race, there exists a 600-meter hill. Aspiras learned from last year when the hill killed his effort.
He conserved his energy, holding back and running in a pack back around the 40-50th place group.
“I knew that not all these people are going to be running up this hill at a 5:30 pace. I purposely slowed down and it was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done in a race. I passed probably 20-plus runners on just one hill. That’s a record for me,” Aspiras said. He finished in 17:23.
Not only was he happy with his effort on the hill, the time was pretty noteworthy as well.
The Centaurs boys’ coach would have liked to see the gap between Aspiras and the Centaurs second-best finisher, Hamilton Barnes, be a little smaller. Barnes finished in 62nd place, just about two minutes behind Aspiras.. A little further back in 80th and 81st places were two of the team captains, Evan Gianfriddo and Tristan Monahan. Hans Rhynhart finished out the scoring five for the Centaurs in 88th place.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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