Final tune-up performances lead to high hopes for ECC championship
Woodstock Academy indoor track coach Josh Welch just has to hope everybody is ready because there is really little more than can be done to prep the boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams for the ECC championship meet this weekend and the Class M state championship that follows next Friday.
That’s one of the reasons why the last tune-up for the championship meets, the ECC Snowflake Invitational at Wesleyan University this past Saturday was so important.
“We had kids add on several events and tried to get them as much track time as possible because, realistically, there is not a lot of training that can be squeezed in before Saturday. We can do a few things to fine tune things but with all the snow and cold, it’s going to be awfully difficult to do a lot more in terms of speed. We just have to hope that everybody is where they need to be, are healthy and focused,” Welch said.
The boys’ team should go into the ECC championship with a bit of confidence as they took home a first-place finish from Middletown.
The Centaurs finished with 92 points as a team to better Fitch (86), NFA (51) and Stonington (47) who comprised the top four teams out of the 11 who competed.
Abraham McGregor owned the school indoor track record but bettered it as he finished with a leap of 22 feet, 2 inches to place first in the long jump. McGregor also joined Thatcher Paterson, Collin Teal and Owen Williamson for a first-place finish in the 4x200 (1 minute, 35.22 seconds) and the foursome of Spencer Mayo, Ronan Curran, Lucas Hecker, and Jackson Durand were first in the 4x800 (8:56.86).
Eli Manning was second in the shotput (46-11) and the sprint medley team of Paterson, Williamson, Teal and Sam Greene also garnered a second-place finish.
Williamson also picked up a third in the 55m hurdles and earned kudos from his coach.
Greene was third in the 600m, Durand was third in the 1600m and Hecker was third in the 3200m.
With the Snowflake being pretty much a replica of what the ECC championship meet will be at the Coast Guard Academy in New London on Saturday, the Centaurs hopes are high but there is reason to be cautious.
Ditto for the girls.
The Centaurs finished second to East Lyme (70.5 points) with a 65-point total.
But there was an asterisk. Woodstock did not compete in the shotput as Avery Plouffe, Lily Morgis and Kiley Elliott were not in attendance.
“Our throwers didn’t come (to Middletown); they had other obligations so if this is a measure of the ECCs, we will be adding in three of the top five in the ECC for shotput and the points will look a lot different there,” Welch said.
Waterford was third with 63 points followed by NFA with 50.
Two school records were established with Emma Weitknecht winning the 55m hurdles and breaking her own school record in the process with an 8.57 second finish.
Emelia Langevin now owns the school’s indoor track 1600m record as she finished second Saturday in 5:27, besting the old mark of 5:29.29 established by Sylvia Lawrence in 2017. Langevin also placed second in the 3200m and also ran well in the 1000m.
The 4x400m team of Weitknecht, Claire Bruneaux, Teagan Maloney and Bella Amlaw ran a season’s best of 4:21.14 and captured first place. The 4x800m team of Olivia Tracy, Bruneaux, Amlaw and Nova Almquist also had a season’s best, 10:34.15, to take a first-place finish home.
Welch was also happy with the relay performances.
“The girls 4x400 is finally starting to come back around,” Welch said.
Maloney was third in the 300m and Ella Lidonde was third in the long jump.
“This is probably the most promising we have looked in getting an indoor conference championship for as long as I have been here and on both the boys and girls sides which is awesome,” Welch said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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