Centaur boys’ track finally prevails in dual meet
The stated goal of the Woodstock Academy boys’ track team was to win a dual meet this season. It didn’t take long to accomplish.
The Centaurs ended the winless drought, which had gone back to 2021, as they captured an 81-67 win over Stonington on the road.
“We have lots of dedicated kids on this team that wanted a win,” said coach Gerry LaMontagne. I had been prepping them in the lead up to the meet that this would be a very close but winnable meet.”
How invested were they?
According to LaMontagne, everyone was paying close attention to the score as the event results came in.
“When we clinched the win after the 3200-meter race, word spread fast and you could just see the excitement,” the coach said.
The Centaurs didn’t just win the 3200m, they swept the top three spots led by senior Colton Sallum who also won the 1600m race and was second in the 800m.
“We asked a lot of him, having him run the unusual triple (the three longest races of the meet) and he delivered spectacularly. He even did well in the 800m which is not a race that he focuses on,” LaMontagne said.
In addition to sweep the 3200, the Centaurs also swept the top three spots in the 1600m.
The distance events were supposed to help carry the load for Woodstock this season along with the weight events.
Distance did its job, so did the throwers.
LaMontagne said, “I put pressure on both groups on the way down, telling the throwers that they had to dominate,”
Junior Eli Manning delivered the expected as he finished first in both the shotput and javelin and David Sumner helped with a first place in the discus.
“In total, we got six of the nine places in the throws. Job done,” LaMontagne said.
Senior Christian Menounos won the 400m, anchored the 4x800m relay which brought home a first-place finish and was second in the 200m.
Thatcher Paterson won the triple jump and was second in the long jump.
The Centaurs are hoping it could be a boost for the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I battles that lie ahead against the likes of East Lyme, Fitch and Norwich Free Academy.
“I think this can be a confidence boost in the short term but confidence can be a fickle beast. Certainly, any sense that this team is jinxed should be gone. That being said, you never know how kids will respond. Now, it’s my job to strike a balance between giving credit but also pointing out where we can be better. The work is just beginning,” LaMontagne said.
Girls’ Track
There were a lot of things to like for the girls’ track team as it opened the season against Stonington. The Centaurs overwhelmed the host Bears 119 2/3 – 22 1/3.
“Definitely happy with the first meet,” coach Josh Welch said. “Great engagement from all of the kids, lots of team support and energy throughout. We had some solid first performances which I expect to see progress significantly once we start seeing some reasonable weather conditions.”
The Centaurs put all the challenging weather behind them and not only bested Stonington in the dual meet but also qualified for the Class MM state championships in 13 different events.
Two relay teams started things right as both finished first and qualified for state competition.
The quartet of Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain, Olivia Tracy, Bella Amlaw and Kira Greene finished in 10 minutes 48 seconds in the 4x800m.
Teagan Maloney, Emma Weitknecht, Elise Coyle and Juliet Allard won the 4x100m in 51.5 seconds.
The Centaurs followed that up with a sweep in the 200m as Allard, Weitknecht and Maloney finished 1-2-3.
The Centaurs also swept the shotput competition as Avery Plouffe, Lily Morgis and Kiley Elliott occupied the top three spots.
D’Alleva-Bochain, Morgis and Plouffe swept the javelin; Morgis and Plouffe were first and second in the discus.
Finnley Syphers, Emma Quinney and Kaitlyn Teal were the top three finishers in the pole vault while Coyle, Teal and Ella Lidonde swept the long jump.
Weitknecht won the 100m hurdles in 16.44 seconds; Coyle was best in the 400m (62.42 seconds) and Olivia Tracy won the 3200m and was second in the 800m.
Allard, Coyle, Weitknecht and Maloney capped off the day with a win in the 4x400m.
“Our usual suspects were doing the heavy lifting. Juliet Allard did a fantastic job in each event, and helped others to do the same. It was encouraging to see Olivia Tracy open the season with a personal best in the 800m after an excellent leg in the 4x800m as well. Freshman Teagan Maloney did very well for a first high school meet, and shows a lot of promise this season, and we’re starting to see more from Finley Syphers at the vault as she qualified for states right away this season,” Welch said.
The 4x400m group put down the fastest time (4:15.86) thus far this season in the state. The 4x800m and 4x100m are in the top 10. Allard is second in the 300m hurdles, D’Alleva-Bochain tops in javelin and Weitknecht is fourth in the 100m hurdles.
It is exciting to see that we are putting down times and distances that rank highly statewide,” Welch said. “I like seeing that their performances are competitive to where we were last year, and in some cases significantly better, at this time in the season. It speaks well for what we can do at the state meet provided we can keep everyone healthy and moving in the right direction. I’m particularly interested to seeing what our 4x100 and 4x400m relays will accomplish this year.”
Of course, it was just the first meet of the season and there is a long way to go.
“We will definitely need to see those continued efforts from our multi-event athletes this season to take on some of the bigger teams. This was a dry run at that for some of our athletes, others had a lighter schedule than they will carry later in the season and we’re building up towards that,” Welch said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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