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Competing
Woodstock Academy junior Taylor Markley, right, competes on the balance beam. Photo by Sean Saucier/The Woodstock Academy.
Injuries were a problem early in the season for the Woodstock gymnastics team. Junior Taylor Markley was bothered by back problems, had to have ankle surgery and also had to overcome illness. Freshman Olivia Aleman was also beset by back issues.
That was then. This is now.
Markley competed in her first ECC championship meet Feb. 12 and captured her first individual title with a 37.9 All-Around total.
“Her comeback has been really awesome,” said coach Kasey Tocchio. “She deserves everything about this.”
And she wasn’t the only one. Aleman finished third in the All-Around with a 36.0 total.
“I’m super-proud of her,” Tocchio said. “She is still making her comeback and working through the injury. We have minimal numbers with her, working on a strict plan, and she is coming out and giving us big scores. She is just doing great. I’m excited to see where she goes. They are both healthy, on the mend, and we’re going to stay that way.”
The two individual performances led to the best team performance of the season as the Centaurs posted a 140.55 total to easily outscore NFA (129.45), Stonington (128.45) and Killingly (128.25).
It was the Centaurs 12th consecutive ECC championship.
Markley She opened with a 9.5 on the vault where she wanted to hit a full, but had to settle for a layout vault.
Markley hadn’t practiced her bar routine much due to some work that she had to put in for her USA gymnastics routine. Markley finished with a 9.7.
“Her second vault was great, not the one we were going to do, we were trying to upgrade but she came back and nailed bars,” Tocchio said. “Mentally and physically, she’s there. She’s all in now.”
She had a fall on beam and finished second with a 9.0 but scored another 9.7 in her floor routine.
Freshman Aleman also started well, getting a 9.1 on the vault, good for second-best overall behind her teammate, Markley. She was third in her second routine, scoring a 9.05 on the bars.
She, too, had a fall on the beam but walked away with an 8.3 and then finished with flair, scoring a 9.55 on the floor.
Senior Lindsey Gillies finished with a 34.4 total including a third-place in the vault (8.85) and a fourth in bars (8.9).
The Centaurs will take on NFA Feb. 21 in their final regular season meet at 11:45 a.m. on Presidents’ Day.
The state championship meet is still to come and the Centaurs have won a state title in each of the last 10 times it has been held dating back to 2011. It’s Feb. 26.
“I think we’re ready,” Tocchio said. “We get a little breathing time which is nice. We’ve been back-to-back with meets and not a lot of practice time so it will give us some time to come together as a team.”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy