Centaurs finish 2nd in state championship meet; have 2 state champs
NEW HAVEN – The Woodstock Academy girls’ indoor track team was only 11 points behind Mercy for first in the Class M state championship indoor track meet with three events remaining.
But coach Josh Welch knew Mercy still had an event that it was going to score well in — the 3200m.
“Mercy has amazing depth in the distance events and we saw it coming,” Welch said. The Middletown school was able to take the second, third and fourth places in the 3200m race and pulled away for the 66-42 win over Woodstock and take the state title in the process.
But the Centaurs were more than happy with the runner-up spot.
Woodstock will get even more chances in the throwing competition with the discus and javelin added to an already great group of shotput throwers who came through again.
Avery Plouffe finished with the second-best throw in Connecticut thus far this year in the shotput, 40-feet, 5 ¼ inches, to win the individual state title.
Teammates Kiley Elliott and Lily Morgis finished third and fourth in the competition, getting personal best of their own in the process.
Senior Emma Weitknecht bettered her own Woodstock school record and won the 55m hurdle championship in 8.33 seconds. That time was fifth-best in Connecticut and 74th best in the nation currently.
Weitknecht will have her name on the record board in another spot as she joined Ella Lidonde, Kaitlyn Teal and Teagan Maloney to finish fourth in the 4x200m relay in 1:51.58.
Lidonde was fourth in the long jump, just missing a school record by a quarter of an inch.
The 4x800m relay team of Olivia Tracy, Nova Almquist, Claire Bruneaux and Bella Amlaw placed fifth while freshman Emme Langevin set a school record in the 1600m (5:17.79) with a sixth-place finish and also had a personal best in the 3200m.
The CIAC State Open championship takes place Saturday at 11:30 a.m. also at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.
As of now, only Plouffe and Weitknecht, by virtue of their first-place finishes, have qualified but Welch feels there will be others.
Boys’ Indoor Track
The boys’ indoor track team had a nice highlight at the Class M indoor track state championship meet: Senior Eli Manning emerged as the winner of the Class M boys’ shotput title with a heave of 51-feet, 1 ½ inches. The Centaurs also saw a school record established. The 4x800m relay team of Lucas Hecker, Sam Greene, Jackson Durand and Ronan Curran finished fourth in a Woodstock Academy school record time of 8:29.7 Senior Abraham McGregor was fourth in the long jump and Owen Williamson was fifth in the 55m hurdles. The Centaurs finished ninth overall as a team in the competition with 20 points.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
caption, page 7:
Above: The girls’ indoor track team. Right: Throwers, from left: Eli Manning, Avery Plouffe, Kiley Elliott and Lily Morgis gathered after the Class M state championship competition. Photos by Gerry LaMontagne.
caption, page 8:
State Title
Emma Weitknecht proudly displays the medal that the Woodstock Academy senior earned on Friday for her first-place finish and state title in the 55m hurdles event at the Class M indoor track championship. Photo by Gerry LaMontagne/Woodstock Academy.
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