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Battle
Woodstock Academy’s Linsey Arends, left, and Bacon Academy’s Jordan Malloy, battle at the ECC girls’ cross-country championship Photo by Marc Allard.
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Woodstock Academy coach Joe Banas was running around Wickham Park in Manchester almost as much as those who were competing in the Class MM state championship Oct. 26.
“I was bouncing around like a pinball machine throughout the girls’ and boys’ races. It’s just something I enjoy doing,” Banas said.
What he saw was more than pleasing to him.
His sophomore runner, Linsey Arends, was moving up through the pack.
He was hoping Arends would finish in the top five.
He got even more than what he expected as she finished in second place in 20 minutes, 14 seconds, just 15 seconds off the pace of Rhiannon Richmond of Avon who won the race.
“Linsey went out slower and had a great second half, just picking people off one at a time,” Banas said. “The Richmond girl was just a little too far ahead but I thought both Linsey and Stella (DiPippo) ran their best race of the year.”
DiPippo finished in seventh in 20:42 after she, too, held back a little early.
“I said to Stella, ‘Finally, this is it. This is how you do it. You see what happened. You are (an) All-State (runner),” Banas said. “She had a big smile on her face.”
The top eight runners in each division are given All-State honors.
It also means the two will compete in the State Open cross-country championship Nov. 1.
Banas said it makes life easier, not only for him, but for the runners, when more than one qualify for the State Open.
“I never had that (when he coached at Killingly High). It’s hard (when only one runner qualifies) because you have to ask another kid to help train this week, but they will be training together,” Banas said.
The goal will be to qualify for the New England championship. To do that, Arends and DiPippo would have to finish in the top 25.
Banas said Arends was about the 40th fastest finisher Oct. 26 but the difference between that and 25th is only about 15 seconds.
“It’s very doable,” Banas said.
Senior captain Megan Gohn (21:42) finished 23rd; freshman Brooke Bergevin was 35th in 22:15 and was followed by teammate Iris Bazinet in 22:18 to account for the top five Centaurs finishers.
The Centaurs placed fifth as a team with a 101 total.
“Very pleased with that and the surprise of the day was Brooke,” Banas said. “She’s been battling low iron and in the early part of the season, I was thinking that this girl is in quicksand and there is something going on after having seen her the previous fall. Her iron levels are starting to come up. If she had a couple more weeks, Meg would have had company. That’s something hopeful for next year. I don’t want to look to far ahead of the Open, but if Stella and Linsey continue to improve and if Brooke can close in, that would be awesome.”
ECC championship
Oct. 21, Arends and Malloy finished within a second of each other in the ECC championship race with Malloy again winning in 20 minutes, 24 seconds.
Malloy also won the league’s individual title last year as a freshman with Arends finishing in third.
Arends will get another chance at Malloy at the State Open as Malloy finished 11th in Class M and will also be in the field.
Arends said the ECC championship race went as she planned early.
She liked the pace of the first mile but slowed down a bit in the second mile which is generally an uphill climb.
Malloy, who started out a little slower, caught Arends at the halfway mark and the two battled from there.
But Banas knew Arends was in trouble when the two hit the final straight away and were basically tied. Malloy is the better sprinter.
Banas tried to position himself as far from the finish line as possible while still being able to get back there by the time the runners did.
“I had a nice angle and I saw they were neck-and-neck and knew the outcome,” Banas said.
Arends knows where she has to improve.
“Sprinting,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve never been a good sprinter. I hate track because you have to be able to sprint the last 100 to 200 meters. It’s never been my strong suit. It’s something I have to work on.”
E. Lyme’s Isabel Pazzaglia finished third in 21:01 followed by DiPippo who finished in 21:14.
It was similar to her 2018 time of 21:07 when DiPippo placed fifth.
“I’m happy with that, my time was similar which was unfortunate, but I placed fourth which was really good,” the junior said.
Banas was also pleased with DiPippo’s finish and thought the team was “right there” against team champion, E. Lyme.
Unfortunately, the Vikings followed Pazzaglia’s third-place finish with a sixth, ninth, 10th, 15th and 16th place.
That was six Vikings in before Woodstock Academy’s third, Gohn, finished in 17th and Bazinet 18th.
E. Lyme finished with 43 points, Woodstock Academy second with 67.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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