Centaurs finish 2nd in Class MM; records set
A thorn in the side. That’s what Hillhouse has been to the Woodstock Academy Centaurs girls’ track team.
For a third consecutive year, the Academics captured the Class MM girls’ track and field state championship with 91 points.
There was some good news for the Centaurs, however.
They finished with 79 points to get past Mercy High School (77) and finish in the runner-up position after a pair of third-place finishes in the past two years.
“We can be happy with second place and take home some lessons at the same time,” coach Josh Welch said. “We could go through too much with them would have, could have, should have, but that’s the day we had. I know we didn’t put our absolute bests together but the girls pushed really hard and represented well.”
The Centaurs led the proceedings for much of the meet thanks to a fine start, especially from their field performers.
But Hillhouse managed to forge ahead late and held a three-point advantage going into the final event, the 4x400m relay.
“We knew that Hillhouse had an awesome 4x400m relay as did Mercy. We knew if Mercy finished too far up and we finished too far back, we would slip to third and we also knew that Hillhouse was in reach if they didn’t have a great run so it was an exciting finish to the day.”
The Academics just got past Mercy in the relay as their quartet finished in a season-best time 4 minutes, 0.32 seconds, just 4/100th’s of a second better than Mercy to take the 10 points and guarantee them the MM state championship.
Woodstock finished eighth and got one point to stay just ahead of Mercy.
The Centaurs built the early lead on the foundation of their field performers.
Lily Morgis now owns the Class MM state record in the discus as she finished first for a second consecutive year with a heave of 137-feet, 6-inches.
Morgis was the top point getter for the Centaurs with 21 as she also placed third in shotput and fourth in javelin.
Isabel D’Alleva-Bochain was the MM state champ in javelin for a third straight year with a throw of 126-5.
Avery Plouffe (39-feet, 3-inches) finished first in the shotput for a second-straight year with Morgis (34-8 ½) third and Kiley Elliott (34-7) fifth.
“The field really carried us today,” Welch said. “Both jumps and throws helped stack up points but to have a sweep of first places (for a second straight year) is incredible. Izzy was a standout not only for her javelin win but for her third place in the high jump and for the way she held up her team.”
Emma Weitknecht easily outdistanced the field in the 100m hurdles, winning by almost a half-second in 14.86 seconds. The senior also placed fourth in the 300m hurdles.
Elise Coyle added a fifth-place finish in the long jump and Ella Lidonde was sixth in the triple jump for the Centaurs.
Boys’ Track
Boys’ track coach Gerry LaMontagne knew everything would have to fall almost perfectly for his Centaurs to come out on top of the Class MM boys track state championship meet.
While the Centaurs did put together some good performances, they had to settle for a fifth-place finish overall as a team.
The Centaurs put together 56 points and finished behind state champion Daniel Hand (88.5); Xavier (76); Rockville (70) and Avon (58).
“Top five was my expectation coming in,” Lamontagne said. “We had some unfortunate injuries and circumstances that cost us so we could have been a bit higher but that’s sports. This team has nothing to hang its heads about.”
Woodstock was in second place after 12 events thanks to some fine performances.
Eli Manning, who began the day with a 46-foot, 1-inch heave in the shotput to finish third followed with a 164-3 throw in the javelin for a second-place finish.
Owen Williamson added eight points to the Woodstock total when he recorded a personal best 15.14-second time in the 110m hurdles to finish second. Williamson also captured a seventh-place finish in the 300m hurdles.
“Really pleased with the efforts from Eli and Owen,” LaMontagne said. “Owen getting a second and a spot in the State Open championship next weekend is a great accomplishment in a tough event. Eli did his thing. I think he would tell you that he wanted more buts it’s the nature of the sport and why he was in that spot to begin with. There are not that many three-event scorers around in the throws anymore,” LaMontagne said.
Abe McGregor also added eight points for the Centaurs with a second place in the long jump, clearing 21-4. That was before he suffered a hamstring injury and had to pull out of the event.
Thatcher Paterson placed sixth. The quartet of Kai Brailsford, McGregor, Collin Teal and Williamson placed fifth in the 4x100m relay while Oliver Pierce, Sam Greene, Jackson Durand and Ronan Curran were sixth in the 4x800m.
“That was a season-best for the 4x800m group which is exciting. All of them come back next year. Hopefully, they get another shot next week at the State Open,” Lamontagne said.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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