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caption, page 2:
Catch Ya Later
Woodstock Academy’s Ethan Aspiras watches as East Lyme’s Luke Anthony pulls away a bit. Aspiras would catch Anthony and win the ECC cross-country championship. Photo by Marc Allard.
Aspiras heads
for State Open
Woodstock Academy junior Ethan Aspiras walked through the finish line, spoke for a moment with former teammate Kenneth Birlin, and then got down on the ground and did a flurry of push-ups and sit-ups.
It was hard to tell that he had just run 3.1 miles and, more importantly, won the ECC individual boys’ cross-country championship early last week.
“It’s a real intimidation factor,” Aspiras said with a smile. “I do that in every single race and people look at me like I’m crazy.”
Aspiras was crazy good early last week.
He defeated E. Lyme sophomore Luke Anthony by one second, coming home in 17 minutes, 13 seconds,
Aspiras followed his normal strategy early on in the race.
He was mired back around 20th place in the first half-mile of the race, saving up his energy for that final push.
“They are really getting into this negative split (completing the second half of a race faster than the first half), it might not be (based on) time, but instead on effort because it’s hard to base it on the hills,” said Centaurs cross-country coach Joe Banas. “He had the discipline to hold back when others went out.”
With about a third of the race left, Aspiras made his move and took over first from Anthony.
“I was feeling pretty good at that point. I didn’t know what the other kid’s kick potential was but I felt really good because Ethan was sort of bounding along. You can settle in, go at someone else’s pace and mentally go on vacation and just let your body do it. Then, when you come back in with focus, you can take off. That’s what he did,” said Centaurs coach Peter Lusa.
But Anthony wasn’t done yet. He passed Aspiras with about 1,000 meters to go. Aspiras wasn’t about to let a first-place finish escape his grasp. He answered the kick and never let Anthony back ahead again and cruised across the finish line.
Aspiras worked hard for the progress throughout the off season but still, he didn’t think even all that work would give him an ECC championship.
The Centaurs placed seventh as a team with Hamilton Barnes coming home in 24th. Aspiras places 4th
Aspiras followed up the championship effort with an equally good performance Oct. 26 at the Class MM state championship meet and bettered his time by 24 seconds from the ECC championship, finishing in 16:49, and placed fourth.
The effort was good enough to net him All-State honors and a spot in the CIAC State Open cross-country championship.
“It was awesome. He did his typical race, started off slow, and picked people off.” Banas said.
Barnes tried to keep up with Aspiras early on in the season but the sophomore also plays baseball and, even worse, is a catcher.
Barnes finished 42nd (18:21); senior Evan Gianfriddo was 88th (19:21); freshman Vince Bastura (19:24) placed 90th; freshman Maxwell Auker (19:41) was 104th and freshman Adam Thompson (20:00) was 110.
The team finished 13th overall.
ECC member East Lyme was the Class MM champ for a third consecutive time.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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