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Art/Nature
Joey Carlone puts his touch on Elaine Turner's painting during the Palmer Arboretum's first Celebrate Spring event. More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photo.

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clockwise from top left:
Committee member helps out.
Finding a quiet spot on a shady bench for creating.
Exploring
Making Birdfeeders
From left: Joey Carlone, Hans-Christian Becker, Nathan Becker and Nicholas Carlone paint up their bird feeder creations.
Viburnum


Palmer Arboretum hosts
Celebrate Spring event
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
WOODSTOCK — The 106-year-old Palmer Arboretum put its “young” foot forward May 22, with the first-ever Celebrate Spring Event.
Geared to introducing families and kids to the arboretum, kids ran free. Creating bird feeders, scavenger hunts, guided tours, bird watching, helping plant flowers, — there was something for everyone.
Plus, said committee member Andy Krovina, “what kid doesn’t like to paint?”.
Artists from the Art Guild Northeast were sprinkled through the grounds, creating art. It was a community effort with kids picking up a paint brush and putting their special touches on Elaine Turner’s painting. And at least 10 names were at the bottom.
Krovina, one of four on the committee, said the committee came up with the idea of a family oriented Celebrate Spring event about three months ago. And just the few of them got it done in three months. Also on the committee are Philippa Paquette, Jessy White and Sara Dziedzic.
“The Walktober event here in the fall draws mostly adults,” she said. “We wanted something to let families and kids know about the arboretum, too.”
Like Walktober, where the response is “we never knew you were here,” plenty of families coming to the arboretum said the same thing. And students from The Woodstock Academy, who have come to help the arboretum, also “never knew.”
Turner said the arboretum is “almost a secret”.
The committee is determined to change that.
Paquette, who led the tours, said “It was a first time for us as we really wanted to introduce people to this gem in their community. We had no idea how many would come — 0 or 500! But the 40 who did come was perfect. The artists were great, the kids all did the crafts, birds showed up and everyone seemed to enjoy the tours.”
Krovina said “We want to draw kids and families. Maybe come have a picnic here. Maybe we’ll get into a fairy garden.”
Artist Turner said it was a “lovely interaction” between families and nature. “Nature settles kids down,” she said. “One boy said he’d let his brother go first.”

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Centaurs Ride Home
The Woodstock Academy girls’ tennis team was all smiles on its ride back home after a win over St. Bernard last week that gives them the ECC Div. 2 regular season title.  Cotillo Sr. Day – Woodstock Academy’s Sara Cotillo was the only senior honored by the Woodstock Academy girls’ tennis team on Senior Day last week. Cotillo completed a very good day with a win at No. 4 singles. (Keith Atchinson photo)

Academy tennis teams take home two titles
The boys’ and girls’ tennis teams both had something to celebrate at Woodstock Academy last week.
The two both captured ECC Div. 2 titles.
The boys’ team had to share theirs with Montville as the two split their two matches this season and both finished 7-1 in the division.
Coach Siana Green said: “I am so excited for our team to share a title. This was our first division since I’ve been coaching and the first for the boys’ team in I don’t know how long. I went into the season just being happy to see our boys being able to get out and play. Winning the division was never the main goal.”
The girls’ team had clinched at least a tie for the division a week earlier but it made it a title of their own when they downed St. Bernard in Uncasville and again May 21 at home to finish 8-0 in Division 2.
“It feels great,” said junior No. 1 player Addy Smith. “After a long season of practicing really hard, it feels great. We didn’t go into the season with any expectations at all, actually, but we’re really glad that it happened.”
The two teams were both affected by the pandemic.
Tennis did not take place last spring. “It probably hurt us a little because we didn’t have access to the resources that we usually do but we worked really hard,” Smith said.
She added that there were some tough adjustments including starting with, essentially, a whole new team and a new head coach in Keith Atchinson.
The girls’ team had been helped by having very little change in its rotation. Smith, Jackie Trudeau, Sydney Schuler and Alexa Fernandez have been its singles players for almost the entire season.
That was shaken up a bit May 21 but only because Atchinson moved senior Sara Cotillo up to fourth singles to celebrate her Senior Day.
Cotillo is the only senior on the squad and delivered a win in a 7-0 shutout of St. Bernard in the second meeting of the week between the two schools.
The doubles teams were also steady with Ellie Bishop-Klee/Logan Reynolds; Cotillo/Morgan Bentley and Fiona Rigney/Stella Atchinson playing the majority of the matches.
“Consistency is always good in whatever you are doing and I think that really helped us a lot. We knew what to expect,” Smith said. “Although we play individually, the strength of this team has been that we can rely on each other.”
Four of the Centaurs boys will play in the ECC tournament which began May 24.
Stefan Chervenkov was seeded as the No. 5 singles player while Evan Haskins was No. 15 in the singles draw.
The top doubles team of Gabrial Viau and Asier Ruiz were given the eighth seed in the 12-team tournament.
“Going into an ECC tournament with half the amount of players as compared to normal (singles was a round of 16 rather than 32), I really only thought Stefan would get in. It was a nice surprise to get Evan in but he has worked really hard this season for all his wins and he deserves it,” Green said. “We worked on some things this weekend and I’m excited to see how are No. 1 doubles team adjusts to playing against some good players.”
The ECC girls’ tennis tournament also began May 24. Smith was seeded in the No. 4 slot while Jackie Trudeau was seeded 10th in singles play.
The Centaurs first doubles team of Ellie Bishop-Klee and Logan Reynolds were seeded No. 4 while the No. 2 team of Cotillo and Morgan Bentley were 10th.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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Adam Thompson moved up to the No. 3 slot and shot a 49 for the Centaurs in the win over Griswold. Photo by Rich Garceau
The Woodstock Academy baseball team celebrated Senior Day for its six seniors. Photo by Trent Peters.

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Freshman Reegan Reynolds won the long jump against Windham in the final dual meet of the season for the Centaurs. Photo by Marc Allard.




Roundup
Girls’ track
finishes
undefeated
The Woodstock Academy girls’ track team finished off the regular season with a 110-38 win over Windham in Willimantic.
It meant the Centaurs finished with a 6-0 overall record and captured the ECC Div. 2 regular season championship with a 5-0 mark.
“We talked about this as a goal on the team, but really we weren’t sure it would be in reach,” said Woodstock Academy coach Josh Welch said. “Starting out with a win in a non-divisional meet with NFA pointed to good things but, it was tough to know which teams would have what in Division 2. I thought it was a lofty goal at the start of the season, but once the girls got the ball rolling, it seemed more and more likely.”
The key for the Centaurs this year has been their interchangeability. Multi-talented athletes who can easily go from event to event and score points for the team.
“We were able to adjust our meet plans to fill out events and make sure we didn’t leave any points on the table. So while we aren’t a huge team this year, we had the numbers and the diversity across events to grab wins over teams that were depending on a handful of standout athletes,” Welch said.
“This year was a big shift in team culture,” Welch said. ”Athletes were ready to jump into new events, they were committed to the season, and their team, at a deeper level than we have seen in the past.  It’s the first time I’ve seen our girls team really adding points up during the meet, asking how we are doing as a team, and engaging in the sport at that team level.”
Sophomore Bella Sorrentino and freshman Jillian Edwards were both key contributors to the win over the Whippets.
Sorrentino was first in both the shotput and the 100-meter while Edwards won the high jump and 100-meter hurdle competitions. Both also were members of the winning 4x100-meter relay team. Ksenjia Martinovic was also a member of that relay team and finished first in the 300-meter hurdles. Talia Tremblay won both the 200 and 400-meter races while Reegan Reynolds was first in the long jump and second in both the 400-meter, where she qualified for the Class MM state championship meet, and the triple jump. Linsey Arends won the 1600-meter race, qualifying for the state championship meet, Carah Bruce took the 3200-meter first-place finish and Magdalena Myslenski was first in discus.
It was those state qualifiers that Welch took most happiness from.
“Three new state qualifiers was a great thing to see.  Linsey qualified for the 1600m and while she doesn’t plan to run that event, it did show that she was getting her mile times back down which was encouraging to see.  Reegan Reynolds has been getting closer in the horizontal jumps but she had the chance to race the open 400m for the first time and qualified for states.  Jillian Edwards has gone back and forth with her hurdle times frequently landing less than a tenth of a second short, in Windham, she finally qualified for states,” Welch said.
The Centaurs now have the larger meets ahead for them with the ECC Division 2&3 championship meet at Plainfield.
“This ECC meet is a bit of a different animal this year, combining division two and three means we will see more than 50 percent of the teams for the first time this season at that meet. Entries are restricted to one athlete per event per team unless they have all surpassed state qualifying standards, so we have to leave a lot of athletes behind this year,” Welch said. “Still we have 19 girls heading to the ECC meet, this will be roughly the same as the class MM meet for us. There are several promising competitions to watch.  Linsey and Leila (MacKinnon) are seeded 1st and 3rd respectively for the 800m, with Jordan Malloy from Bacon seeded 2nd. I expect that to be an exciting race. Talia Tremblay has a great shot at the 400m and 200m and our 4x800m should do very well.”
The ECC championship will be followed by the Class MM championship June 2.

Boys’ Track
Centaurs finish with tie
The Centaurs girls’ track team flirted with a couple of tie results this season, but ended up winning both meets over NFA and Killingly by slim margins.
The Centaurs boys’ team actually finished with a rare tie result as it and Windham deadlocked at 75.
The tie meant the Centaurs finished the regular season with a 3-2-1 mark overall and a 3-1-1 record in the ECC  Div. 2.
“Very satisfied to have a season at all, but, yes, I am pleased with the condition of our athletes and their level of commitment to the sport,” said Woodstock Academy coach Pete Lusa. “We have a nice range of abilities, with beginners, advancing, and top performers in nearly every event. This affords each level to look forward to the next skill level, or to assist in teaching/coaching the level below.”
Adam Schimmelpfennig won both hurdle events for the Centaurs against the Whippets while Ethan Aspiras took both the 1600 and 3200 meter events and Keenan LaMontagne was a double winner in the shotput and discus. Other first-place finishes were had by Liam Wilcox (long jump), Alex Smith (javelin) and Jackson Dias (high jump).
Matt Marshall qualified for the Class MM state championship meet in the 100-meter and Ian Hoffman did likewise in the 400-meter. Carter Saracina qualified for the ECC championship in the 100.
Lusa feels he will have every event covered in the ECC championship at Plainfield with two or three athletes in just about every event. After that, the Centaurs will take aim at the Class MM state championship meet June 2.

Baseball
Centaurs 1st seed in ECC tournament
It’s not how the Woodstock Academy baseball team thought the season would end.
Instead of a Senior Day game against Windham Saturday and a season finale in Willimantic Monday, the Centaurs instead were able to get a little extra practice in.
They celebrated Senior Day with an intrasquad scrimmage after Windham could not field a team and forfeited both games to the Centaurs who finish the regular season 16-4.
That was good enough to give them the overall No. 1 seed in the ECC tournament.
The Centaurs received a first-round bye and will play the winner of the play-in game between No. 8 East Lyme and No. 9 St. Bernard in a quarterfinal game May 26.
“We’re happy. We worked hard and we’ve got to be happy. It’s the highest we’ve ever been ranked in baseball. Hopefully, we’re going to peak at the right time and do well in both tournaments,” said Woodstock Academy coach Brian Murphy.
Following the ECC tournament, the Centaurs will play in the Class L state tournament.
Earlier last week, Kaden Murphy got the best gift for a pitcher. The big inning.
Woodstock delivered that for Kaden Murphy against Putnam as it broke open a 2-all tie with nine runs in the fourth inning and rolled to an 11-2 win.
“It’s great. The guys gave me a good cushion and we just rolled off of that,” Kaden Murphy said.
Kaden Murphy didn’t have his best stuff against the Clippers who were able to reach him for a pair of runs in the third inning and briefly held the 2-1 lead.
“When you go through a season, pitchers have days when they have to battle and be tough and (against Putnam), this was his day to do that. He wasn’t the sharpest that we’ve seen him but he battled and got us the win,” said Woodstock Academy coach Brian Murphy.
Kaden Murphy pitched five innings, gave up six hits, but struck out eight, raising his record to 5-0. Kaden Murphy was also coming off a week away from the mound.
Kaden Murphy helped himself in the fourth inning as he doubled to score Brendan Hill, who had been hit by a pitch, with the lead run.
Hamilton Barnes singled to load the bases and a bunt by Jacob Hernandez was thrown away, resulting in a pair of Centaur runs.
Jackson Goetz singled to knock in Barnes, a walk to Zach Roethlein loaded the bases and Avery Killingsworth was hit by a pitch to force home another run. Roethlein came home on a wild pitch.
After a foul out, a fielder’s choice by Trey Ayotte scored a run and Murphy came up for a second time in the inning and knocked in another run with a single.
Kaden Murphy finished with three hits while Goetz added two.
The Centaurs also played an ECC non-divisional game against Ledyard and the bats came alive late again. After Ledyard built a 2-0 lead, the Centaurs tied the game in the fifth inning on a two-run Trey Ayotte double. Woodstock Academy added three more runs in the sixth and four in the seventh for a 9-2 win. Hamilton Barnes went 4-for-4 at the plate while Jacob Hernandez added three hits to back the pitching of Jon Smith who scattered seven hits and raised his record to 4-1 on the mound.

Softball
Centaurs clinch tie for title
The Centaurs finished in a tie with Griswold for the ECC Div. 2 crown as both sported identical 14-1 league records after Woodstock bested Windham, 5-1, in the first game of a scheduled doubleheader.
“We got it done. We had a great season. Even though the division might not have been as strong as a normal year, Killingly is still in the division and has a great team this year. Griswold is one of the best teams in the ECC year in and year so to be able to co-champ with them, beat them and have great games with them, this was as good a championship as any we ever had,” said Woodstock Academy coach Jay Gerum.
The Wolverines will be the No. 1 seeded team in the tournament with Woodstock as the second seed.
That was determined by a coin flip. The Centaurs hosted the winner of the Wheeler-Killingly game in a semifinal. The championship game is scheduled May 26.
Madison Martinez drove in two runs and Lexi Thompson, Delaney Anderson and Meg Preston all had two hits for the Centaurs (16-3) in the win over Windham May 22. Alyssa Figueroa had two hits and the RBI for the Whippets.
Windham (10-7, 9-7) forfeit the second game of the scheduled doubleheader.

Boys’ Golf
Centaurs battling for state spot
If the season were to end now, the Woodstock boys’ golf team would qualify for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division II state championship tournament. But, they sit in the 20th and final spot.
Fortunately, the Centaurs may be playing some of their best golf of the season and, ironically, it may be because they don’t have a senior on the squad.
“This group is extremely focused on the task at hand.  One of the unique things about this group is the fact that I have no seniors.  Seniors get easily distracted come late May.  We are focused on playing golf and bringing our scores down,” said Woodstock Academy coach Rich Garceau. “At the start of the season we struggled to break 200.  This week we nearly broke 170 with a score of 172.  I have not had a team go that low in a few years, so right now the struggle is consistency.  That really isn’t from focus, it is more from the reality that we are still learning to make good decisions and execute the game plan.  All of that really seems to be coming together at just the right time.”
The Centaurs finished the week with a solid 7-0 win over Griswold to raise their record to 6-5 overall and 6-3 in Division 2 of the ECC.
The win coming despite the absence of their No. 3 man, Chris Thibault, who had a family commitment. Adam Thompson stepped into Thibault’s spot and delivered the second best score on the team, a 49.
“Adam is really turning a corner with his game.  He is relatively new to golf so structurally his driving and iron game can be a bit inconsistent.  He is always open to criticism and suggestions.  Where he scores is around the greens.  Sometimes Adam takes a unique route from the tee to the green but once he is on or around the green, he can be an absolute beast with his short game,” Garceau said.
Kyle Brennan was his consistent self as the junior finished with a 4-over par 40. Brennan has also been the leader of the team.
He was paired with Thibault for much of the season which helped the more inexperienced player. Garceau felt that guidance would also work with No. 3 man Davis Simpson so he moved Simpson up to the two slot to be paired with Brennan.
“Davis has had some ups and downs during the season and I felt it was healthy for both of them to give them a fresh look on the course to help their focus toward the end of the season,” Garceau said. “I thought Davis could learn a great deal about course management from Kyle.  Chris took the move very well and seems to have put his foot on the accelerator and Davis, although he did struggle with his game against Griswold is learning so much in the 2 spot that will benefit us for the rest of the season and two seasons to follow.”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

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