Girls’ track
wins ECC
championship
meet
There were some tears during the victory lap for the Woodstock Academy girls’ track team at the ECC girls’ track championship last week at East Lyme High School.
Those tears came for a couple of different reasons.
First and foremost, it was the first time the Centaurs girls’ track team had ever captured the Div. I & II championship meet title.
“There were definitely tears of joy but I also think everyone is so sentimental that they will miss the team culture and how happy everyone was. It was such a special event, such a great thing to happen, we all loved it,” said junior Julia Coyle.
It was also the culmination of, in the case of Bella Sorrentino, four years of dedication.
“It was really special. It was so good. All of our hard work has really paid off, everyone has been trying so hard, working their butts off and it was really rewarding,” the senior added.
Woodstock coach Josh Welch described it as the “perfect ending” to the ECC season as the Centaurs finished undefeated throughout the conference season.
“They seemed excited during the victory lap, holding the banner and the cheering for them. That was the best part of the day, just seeing them enjoy that. There were a lot of mixed emotions especially as we headed toward the end of the meet; some of the seniors were in tears for good and bad reasons. Some were sorry to see it end, some were stoked about what they had accomplished and some were sad that they didn’t have their best, best day. You can tell that there was a lot of investment especially from the upperclassmen,” Welch said.
The Centaurs got past the host East Lyme Vikings, 129-118. Norwich Free Academy finished in third with 107.
 “It got pretty close,” Welch said. “We were in fourth through first at various stages and just about every (school) had the lead at one point. We started to pull away with some of the later events. The 300-meter hurdles helped a lot and so did the 3,200-meter. That’s where we pulled ahead,” Welch said.
Sophomore Juliet Allard couldn’t complain much about her performance. Allard had three personal bests and came home with two first-place finishes and a second.
“She was on fire,” Welch said.
Allard was best in the 200-meter race and 300-meter hurdles and was second in the 100-meter race.
Welch was more than happy with that performance especially considering there was a mitigating circumstance.
She had attended the Taylor Swift concert in Foxboro, Mass., the night before.
“We were a little concerned because she looked a little fatigued,” Welch said with a laugh. “She fired up when she needed to and did a fantastic job.”
Emma Wietknecht finished second in the 300-meter hurdles which helped put the Centaurs over the top.
“I was hoping she was going to have a standout day. She has been looking really good. I didn’t know about second place. I knew she would battle but that was fantastic,” Welch said.
Senior Magdalena Myslenski had the only other first-place finish in the javelin, and was also second in the discus and fifth in the pole vault.
Sorrentino placed second in shotput with a personal best 35-foot, 9-inch throw and was third in the 100m hurdles.
“Bella had a solid day, not her greatest day,” Welch said. “She had a good shotput day, not a great long jump day, and her hurdles were OK.”
It was also the last ECC championship meet for Sorrentino.
“It’s sad in that way,” the senior said. “But I also feel really grateful to have won because I’ve been working for it for four years.”
“We’re going to miss the seniors a lot,” Coyle said. “They have shaped the positivity and happiness of the team overall. They have done a great job motivating us and helping us get to where we are and having won the ECC title which is great. We’re going to miss them collectively. They are a huge part of the team.”
In addition to Myslenski and Sorrentino, Tessa Brown, Lauren Brule, Carah Bruce, Sydney Lord, Abby Morin, Sophia Quinn and Gianna Smith are also seniors on the team.
Freshman Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain was second in the 800m. Coyle finished third in the 1600m and sixth in the 3200m race; Olivia Tracy was fourth in the 1600m; Talia Tremblay was fourth in the 400m; Reegan Reynolds was third in triple jump and fourth in the long jump and Quinn was third in the discus.
Where can things get better for the Class MM state competition on Thursday?
“Everybody has to handle pressure and our team has been doing a lot better with that but in the past, we’ve been rocky. We’ve been great at it this year and going into States, we have a positive attitude and are ready to go for it,” Coyle said.
There should be a little added confidence considering what has happened in the ECC this season.
“I think it should give us a boost. It shows the girls that they can accomplish a heck of a lot. We’re ready for it. If we have our perfect day, we will be up in the top couple of teams. I’m hoping that the personal bests that we missed at the ECC’s, will come through there and maybe we could even take down a few school records,” Welch said.
Boys’ Track
Woodstock senior Jared Eaton didn’t necessarily expect to come out with a pair of ECC individual titles from the Div. I & II boys’ track championship meet at East Lyme last week. But that’s what happened.
Eaton won the shotput with a throw of 52-feet, 7-inches and followed that up with a 142-9 heave to win the discus.
To add a little cherry on top, he finished third in the javelin.
“I was ecstatic,” Eaton said. “I went into the meet thinking that I would probably get a second place in shot, third in discus, and I just blew myself away. It was truly phenomenal. There was some fierce competition in javelin but I pulled ahead and got third so I was very proud of that.”
Centaurs coach Gerry LaMontagne said even though Eaton had been dominant in the shotput this season, he did have solid competition from East Lyme’s Tom Matlock who had come in with a personal best throw of 56-7. Eaton’s was 53 feet.
“It was one of those on paper type of things that you look at and say ‘Probably not.’ That being said, that’s why you play the game. It was particularly sweet that it was his final throw that won. Tommy had thrown 52-1. I had gone down there, watched (Eaton’s) fifth throw and gave him some things to think about when he stepped in and all the credit to Jared, he stepped in and got it done with that big one on the last throw,” LaMontagne said.
The discus was also unexpected.
“We weren’t sure what we were going to get but the last two weeks or so, we could see him coming around technically, figuring some things out and getting more consistent with his release. He was able to catch one and I figured that mid-140 distance was going to be a winner,” LaMontagne added.
It all came in Eaton’s last ECC competition of his high school career.
“Getting those last two gold medals and then the bronze really solidified the season for me and made it a good finish. Wrapping up the ECC’s like that, felt amazing,” Eaton said.
LaMontagne worked on a different strategy with Christian Menounos.
The sophomore distance runner was not happy with his last few 800m efforts as he felt like he was stuck in neutral.
He had run 1 minute, 59 seconds three or four times in a row, not seeing much improvement.
So, LaMontagne and the coaching staff decided to give Menounos a different focus.
Rather than concentrating on his time and splits, they wanted him to focus on his competition, Stonington runner Ryan Gruczka who had been running the 800-meters in 1:55 this season.
“We wanted Christian to get on his hip pocket and run with him. It was a different approach and we told him that if he was even with him through 600m, that we liked his chances in the final 200m because he has a tremendous kick,” LaMontagne said.
Menounos and Gruczka ran even for 300m and right at the halfway mark, Menounos decided it was time to go.
He finished in a personal best 1:57.73 which also bettered his previous school record in the event.
 “I was very happy with that,” Menounos said. “I knew Ryan was a 1:55 guy but he had also just raced the mile. My goal was just to stay with him and let it rip the second lap and that’s what I did and it came through.”
Senior Carter Saracina also brought home a first-place finish as he scooted through the 100-meter in 11.19 seconds.
“We knew he had a chance in both the 100 and 200 and he came through with a couple of great races,” LaMontagne said.
Saracina finished third in the 200-meter and also helped the 4x100-meter relay team qualify for the Class MM state competition on Thursday, June 1. Saracina was joined on that team by Aidan Kane, Anthony Beaudreault and Jeff Phongsa.
The 4x400-meter relay team of Menounos, Charles Caggiano, Owen Tracy and Vince Bastura also qualified for state competition as did Bastura in the 1600m, Phongsa in the 200m and Cam Nason in the high jump.
“That was a big piece of the championship meet for us. We knew we had a bunch of guys who were close and were knocking on the door and it was the final chance to get it done and qualify. It was especially nice to see the relay teams come together and put on some really nice performances,” LaMontagne said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

The girls’ track team celebrated its ECC championship meet win.

Sophomore Juliet Allard brought home plenty of medals from the ECC championship meet as she finished with three personal-best efforts and was first in both the 300-meter hurdles and 200-meter race and second in the 100-meter race. Photos by Josh Welch.

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