Roundup
Centaur girls claim ECC championship
The disappointment was evident on the faces of the Woodstock Academy girls’ track team the week before.
They had just had to accept a two-point loss to Norwich Free Academy on the Centaurs home turf that gave the Wildcats the ECC Div. I regular season championship.
It stung. On Wednesday, the Centaurs stung back at the ECC Div. I &II championship meet. Woodstock captured the league championship with a decisive 145.5 – 123.5 win over NFA.
The two teams flip-flopped from last year when the Centaurs won the regular season crown but NFA took the championship meet.
Senior Juliet Allard, who had four first-place finishes against NFA a week ago, had to settle for a couple less but still pulled off victories in the 200-meter race (25.61 seconds) and 300-meter hurdles (45.87) while earning a second-place finish in the 100m.
Allard, said personally, she was most happy with her hurdle effort as it was her fourth consecutive year as ECC champ in the event and she never lost in it during her high school career in the league.
“That was a really great feeling,” said Allard who also bettered her own school record time in the 200-meter.
Junior Emma Weitknecht won the 100m hurdles (15.15) and was second to her teammate in the 300m hurdles (47.98).
The Centaurs also got help from their throws as Avery Plouffe won the shotput (37-feet, 7-inches) and Lily Morgis captured the discus (113-08).
Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain was second in the javelin (119-05) and also tied for third in the high jump (4-10) despite a tough schedule.
D’Alleva-Bochain had to check out of the high jump and javelin to compete in the 4x800m relay.
Right after she ran that race and helped the Centaurs to a second-place finish, she had to immediately return to her other two events and rotated between the two, which were about 200 meters apart, through the rest of the competition.
Sophomore Elise Coyle captured a pair of second-place finishes in the 400m (59.88) and long jump (16-4 ½) while teammate Ella Lidonde also brought home a second-place finish in the triple jump (33-7).
Also scoring big points for the Centaurs was Olivia Tracy who was third in the 1600m.
The season is far from over. Next on the list is the Class MM state championship meet May 31.
Welch said: “We have a handful of kids who could be state champions or runners-up and could finish between that 50 to 80 points that you need to win a state championship. I think we can be up there. I’m really hoping to pull this one off. We’ve come close before and I know we will be close again- maybe the magic happens because we have the potential to be a state championship team. I would love to see it happen,” Welch said.
Boys’ Track
Senior Christian Menounos knew he was going to have his work cut out for him. “I was excited but I knew there was some great competition. I knew I was going to be pushed to a great time, I didn’t know it would be a record time,” the senior said.
With about 200m left, he knew he had a shot at the ECC championship meet record that had been held since 1975 by Peter Fitzsimmons who ran for E.O. Smith High School.
Menounos finished in 4 minutes, 15.80 seconds, besting the previous mark of 4:16. It was also a Woodstock Academy record time.
A trio of East Lyme runners Sam Leone, Sean McCauley and Matthew Carrier followed him across the line.
Menounos also placed third in the 800m.
Menounos will be headed to UConn in the fall where he has been offered a roster spot by the Huskies.
The team, as a whole, placed seventh with 66 points but had an athlete in every event.
Junior Eli Manning placed first in the javelin while Owen Williamson was third in the 300m hurdles and fourth in the 110m. Thatcher Paterson was third in the long jump and sixth in the triple and Sallum was fourth in the 3200m.
Girls’ Golf
The weather wasn’t exactly conducive for golf last week. Gray skies. Breezy if not downright windy at times. A soggy golf course.
But the girls’ golf team put all of that aside and chalked up two victories to go above the .500 mark for the season.
Coach Earl Semmelrock said: ”I charge the girls every match with just trying to improve and for the most part, they have done that. The weather has been just a little better than horrible. We’ve had good weather for maybe two or three matches. We’ve been slogging through the mud, the wind, the cold and the rain. They have a really great attitude, though, go out there and do what they have to do.”
The Centaurs are now 7-6 overall and 5-4 in the ECC after a 191-254 victory over Bacon Academy on Wednesday.
Despite all the bad in terms of the weather, the Centaurs actually had one of their best outings of the season.
Reagan Scheck finished as medalist against the Bobcats with a 44.
But the Centaurs had two others who also broke the 50 mark as Bella Mawson and Lily Moran both brought 46’s back to the clubhouse.
It was a much closer battle for the Centaurs on Tuesday at home. The Centaurs escaped Quinnatisset with a six-stroke victory over East Lyme, 207-213. Scheck was medalist with a 43 while Colbie O’Connor added a 53 for the Centaurs.
Scheck tied two Killingly golfers for medalist honors Monday as all three finished with a 46 total. Killingly came out on top in the team competition 194-211 over the Centaurs, however. Moran carded a 50 for the Centaurs.
Woodstock was actually supposed to play four matches in four days but Thursday’s Nor’easter closed Quinnatisset and pushed the Centaurs match with Quinebaug Valley to next week.
The Centaurs are also within reach of another goal-qualifying for the state tournament.
Boys’ Golf
After a week that had no breaks in it, five consecutive matches, the boys’ golf team got a little reprieve this week.
The Centaurs were scheduled to play two matches but that was reduced to one.
The match with Norwich Free Academy, scheduled for Thursday, was re-scheduled to Wednesday, May 28th due to a heavy rainstorm.
In their only outing, the Centaurs took two out of three Tuesday at the Old Lyme Country Club.
Some practice during a light schedule paid off. Woodstock downed Morgan School 6-1 and Old Lyme 6 ½ - ½ but lost to East Lyme 4-3.
It was the first time in Garceau’s 21-year career that he had played a Morgan School or Old Lyme team,
In addition, because of school commitments, Garceau left three of his regular players in Woodstock and the three who replaced them stepped up to the plate.
Jayden Fuller led the way with a 37 while both Logan Rawson and Blake Hudock carded 39s.
Fuller, a senior, is in his first year of playing for the Centaurs, having just picked up the clubs for a first time last summer.
Fuller is not the only first-year senior on the team.
Sam Clark was a lacrosse player who came to golf after an ACL injury suffered in football which limited his mobility.
The Centaurs are 9-4 overall but just 1-3 in Div. I of the ECC.
Softball
After narrowly missing the state tournament a year ago, the goal for the softball team was clear. Get back into the postseason.
The Centaurs succeeded in that quest on Wednesday, qualifying for the Class L state tournament by downing Ellis Tech for their eighth win of the season.
“Last year, only having six wins, I felt like we were a team that could have had more. I’m really excited to move on to States after this win and playing to the best of our potential. It’s something I have been waiting for the whole season,” said coach Hannah Burgess.
The wait ended when the Centaurs handed the Eagles a 13-3 loss on a raw, breezy day. Woodstock wasted no time in pouncing on the Eagles.
Maci Corradi was hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the first inning. Campbell Favreau and Ellary Sampson followed with singles but Corradi was tagged out at the plate trying to score.
The Centaurs did get on the board when Maddie Bloom laced a two-run double to left. Grace Delsanto moved her over to third with a single and she scored when Kaya Nichols reached on an error. Avery Hardacker then delivered a two-run single to put the Centaurs up 6-0.
Sampson and Ella Chitmanotham would also drive in a pair of runs for the Centaurs in the contest. Delsanto pitched a two-hitter with nine strikeouts.
Prior to the game, Bloom, Delsanto, Nichols and Hardacker were recognized as the seniors on the team.
The Centaurs finished up the regular season with an 8-12 record thanks to a pair of close losses to finish off the week.
On Saturday, the Centaurs lost to West Haven, 5-3.
The Centaurs were down, 5-0, going into the bottom of the seventh when they pushed all of their runs across.
A Corradi single and a walk to Favreau was followed by an RBI double for Bloom, an RBI ground out for Delsanto and an RBI single by Kaya Nichols. A groundout, however, ended the comeback hopes.
Bloom and Sampson both had three hits for the Centaurs while Corradi added a pair.
It was similar the game before as the Centaurs rallied in the seventh at Griswold to tie the game only to see the Wolverines come up with the walk-off run in the bottom of the inning as they posted a 7-6 victory Friday.
Down 6-3, Faith Sortwell led off the seventh with a triple for the Centaurs.
A walk and hit batter loaded the bases. Favreau and Sampson, who both drove in two runs in the game, both had RBI singles and Delsanto drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. The Wolverines got a walk, stolen base and RBI single in the seventh for the walk-off win.
The bats never got going for the Centaurs earlier in the week as they were limited to three hits by St. Bernard pitcher Kaitlyn Scribner and the Saints prevailed, 3-0. Corradi, Chitmanotham, and Favreau had the base hits for the Centaurs.
The Centaurs did get runners on first and second in the third inning but a sacrifice bunt was popped up and Scribner came out of the circle to make the catch and then threw to first to complete the double play.
Boys’ Tennis
Everybody knew it. The overall match was going to come down to the last pairing of the day, the third doubles.
That turned out to be the case and Woodstock pulled out that match for a 4-3 victory over Killingly.
The win meant the Centaurs finished up the regular season with a 7-7 record and qualified for the Class M state tournament.
“I’m very happy with that record; it’s a huge improvement over last year. It gets us into States and also gives us some goals for next year, realistic matches to shoot to win next season,” said coach Siana Green.
Stevie Wilmot and Carlos Rodriguez picked up the key victory against their Killingly opponents, Tomas Gutierrez and Ed Purcell, at third doubles as they outlasted them 6-1, 6-7, 6-1.
But it wasn’t easy to get there.
Woodstock needed to win two singles matches. Tyler Chamberlin and Adriano Peniche both battled hard but lost their matches. Ryan Chabot won his first set, 7-6 (6-4) was down 0-5 in the second set of his match.
“I gave Ryan some small goals to focus on and then he won two games. Then I said, if he could get one more game, his opponent would start to mentally break down. Somehow, Ryan, literally point-by-point came back from 0-5 to win 7-5,” Green said.
It brought the Centaurs back to even at 3-3 and, as expected, made third doubles then decisive match.
Wilmot and Rodriguez posted the 6-1 victory to give the team the win.
The first doubles team of Owen Murdock and Daniel Jameson also posted a victory as did Ashley Abrams at fourth singles.
Earlier in the week, Adriano Peniche and Abrams picked up wins in the singles competition for the Centaurs in a boys tennis match in Ledyard but the host Colonels won the two other singles matches and swept doubles to post a 5-2 victory.
The ECC and Class M tournaments await for the Centaurs. The second doubles team of Heath White and Cayden Worth were the 10th seed in the tournament which began on Monday. The first doubles team of Daniel Jameson and Owen Murdock were the 15th seed in the doubles tournament. Senior Tyler Chamberlin is an alternate for the singles tournament.
The Centaurs will then move on to the state tournament.
Boys’ Volleyball
The Senior Day ceremony was relatively short.
That’s a good thing for the future for the boys’ volleyball team.
It means there will be very few seniors that the Centaurs will be saying good-bye to once the season comes to an end.
With six sophomores in the starting lineup, only one senior has seen a lot of playing time this year.
Nathan Billings has played the right side for the Centaurs for much of the season and has contributed nicely to the team’s efforts.
Billings played defensive specialist and rotated in at right side for the Centaurs in their first year as a varsity program last year. This season, he is the right-side hitter.
“I’m very happy with the role that he has stepped into. No one on my team is a leader, I don’t choose captains, but he stepped into that role as a senior. He goes out and does the job to the best of his abilities I’ve talked to him a lot this year about how I like how he has played and made tremendous progress. He’s made some nice service runs for us, he can put the ball away and defensively, he’s really good,” coach Adam Bottone said.
Billings came into the week with 103 digs, 25 service aces and 57 kills for the Centaurs.
In addition to Billings, international players Kevin Yu, Arthur Witek and Francesco Panetta were recognized prior to the match with Newington on Tuesday.
The match, itself, didn’t produce as good a news as the Centaurs fell to the visitors, 3-0. Owen Budd had six kills for the Centaurs while Billings added five and Christian Hart had 13 digs.
Woodstock finished the season with a 12-8 record as it lost its regular season finale on the road to Norwich Free Academy, 3-1.
The Centaurs won the first set, 25-22, but lost the next three 25-20, 25-21, and 25-17. Budd and Sam Anderson each had six kills and Hart finished with 21 digs.
Girls’ Lacrosse
Woodstock saw its season come to an end in the midst of a Nor’Easter. The Centaurs were one of the few teams that braved the elements on Thursday but had to as it was the final day of the regular season in the sport.
Heavy rain, wind and cold temperatures greeted them and their guests, Norwich Free Academy.
“I have never played a lacrosse game in a Nor’Easter and I don’t want to again,” coach Heather Miller said.
Unfortunately, that combination did not slow down the Wildcats who downed the Centaurs 16-2.
Woodstock finished its season with a 3-13 record.
“We improved 200 percent,” Miller said.
Junior Kaylee Saucier scored both goals for the Centaurs and finished as the team’s leading scorer with 41 goals and 15 assists. Saucier also had a hat trick in North Stonington where the Centaurs fell short to Wheeler, 14-5. Maggie Marshall and Kaelyn Tremblay also scored while Houle made six saves in the cage.
Early in the week, Woodstock lost to Montville, 10-3. Saucier had two goals and an assist for the Centaurs. Abby Converse, who finished with nine goals and three assists, also scored while Grace Lescault added an assist. Junior Clara Dowdle finished as the team’s second-leading scorer with 18 goals and 20 assists.
Boys’ Lacrosse
The goal was to make the state tournament. That didn’t happen.
The Centaurs finished up with a trio of losses to end the season and finished with a 4-12 overall mark.
“The record I don’t think tells our story well enough and I’m sure every coach says that, but if we boil down our season to this; 20 minutes over the course of four games where we played high quality, beautiful lacrosse that this team can play, the record would have been different,” said coach Jason Tata. “Tata knew the backside of the schedule was going to be difficult and that certainly turned out to be true.
The last three games were not ones that the Centaurs will want to remember as they lost to Somers 15-2, Granby 17-2 and RHAM 15-2.
There was plenty to like about the season. Tata said "The heart of these guys. Losing is hard. ... This team kept its head forward; next play; next moment; next game; next practice. "
The Centaurs lose seven players from this team to graduation but do have some players returning.
Top scorer Dylan Phillips, who finished with 38 goals and 12 assists and Corey Lafond (10 goals, 18 assists) will be back.
David Genay will return to anchor the defense, Quan Sangasy will return in the net and Patrick Griswold will be asked to fill the X position being vacated by the team’s second leading scorer this year, Gunnar Basak (19 goals, 15 assists).
The one concern; the lack of young players on the team. The Centaurs had only one freshman on the roster.
“We do need some young guys,” Tata said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
Christian Menounos: Woodstock Academy senior Christian Menounos took first place and now owns the ECC championship meet record after winning the 1600m event at East Lyme High School last week. Photo by Josh Welch/Woodstock Academy.
2025 Woodstock Academy: The Woodstock Academy girls outdoor track team proudly displays the ECC Championship banner they won at East Lyme High School last week. Photo contributed by Isabella Selmecki/Woodstock Academy.
2025 girls softball Senior Day: Woodstock Academy seniors (from left to right) Madison Bloom, Kaya Nichols, Grace Delsanto and Avery Hardacker were recognized during Senior Day ceremonies prior to their game with Ellis Tech last week. Photo by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.
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