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Woodstock captains (from left) Leah Castle, Linsey Arends and Carah Bruce accept the trophy for finishing third place. Photo by Josh Welch.
Woodstock Academy assistant girls’ cross-country coach Josh Welch said the strategy was simple: Let senior Linsey Arends run hard in a meet against Fitch early last week and then let her rest up for the weekend. It turned out to be very effective.
The goal was for her to break the 20-minute mark in the Wickham Park Invitational Oct. 9.
Arends accomplished that as she finished in 19 minutes, 56 seconds in the tune up for the state championship meet which will be run on the same course.
That was good for fourth-place individually in the medium varsity race.
It also led the Centaurs to a third-place finish in the race, just behind E. Lyme and Tolland.
Arends has one more regular season meet, Oct. 13 at NFA, before the ECC championship meet on Oct. 21 in Norwich and the Class MM state championship meet on Oct. 30 at Wickham Park.
Welch expects to see even better from the senior as the competition improves.
Lauren Brule placed 24th at the Wickham Invite while Julia Coyle came home in 39th to round out the top three for the Centaurs.
There was little Arends had to worry about in Groton. The senior had two of her teammates behind her and no one in front. The 1-2-3 finish guaranteed the Centaurs a 19-39 win over Fitch, 19-39.
Plainfield failed to have a full team and Woodstock was awarded a 15-50 win over the Panthers. The Centaurs are now 6-1 overall and 1-1 in Div. I of the ECC.
Arends made it look easy as she toured the Haley Farm State Park course in 16 minutes, 51 seconds. The course was only about 2.7 miles long for the girls.
It’s the second time in four regular season meets that the girls have run under the traditional 5K or 3.1 mile length.
Arends was almost two minutes better than Coyle who came across the line in 18:44, just a second better than another Centaur, Carah Bruce.
Sydney Lord was sixth and Leah Castle seventh overall for Woodstock in Groton.
Welch was happy with the performances of Coyle, Bruce and the others.
At Wickham, the Centaurs were 49 points behind the Vikings which may sound like a lot. However, in total time, Woodstock was only a minute off the Vikings’ pace.
Boys’ Cross-country
Ian Hoffman continues to excel in his first year in cross-country. The senior led the way for the boys’ cross-country team Oct. 9 at Wickham Park. He finished in 17 minutes, 46 seconds, good enough for 28th place individually. The boys finished 15th overall as a team in Manchester with Vince Bastura placing 51st and Christian Menounos 96th.
The philosophy was not to win at Wickham this weekend or in a couple of weeks in the Class MM state championship meet as much as to learn how to compete at those races. Woodstock is in a building year. But there will be no holding back even with a meet at NFA Oct. 13 looming. Hoffman finished third overall in Groton earlier in the week as the Centaurs downed Plainfield, 15-50, but lost a close one to Fitch, 27-29. Bastura placed fifth for Woodstock Academy (5-2, 0-2), Menounos was seventh and Seamus Lippy ninth.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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