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Woodstock captains (from left) Leah Castle, Linsey Arends and Carah Bruce accept the trophy for finishing third place. Photo by Josh Welch.
Woodstock Academy assistant girls’ cross-country coach Josh Welch said the strategy was simple: Let senior Linsey Arends run hard in a meet against Fitch early last week and then let her rest up for the weekend. It turned out to be very effective.
The goal was for her to break the 20-minute mark in the Wickham Park Invitational Oct. 9.
Arends accomplished that as she finished in 19 minutes, 56 seconds in the tune up for the state championship meet which will be run on the same course.
That was good for fourth-place individually in the medium varsity race.
It also led the Centaurs to a third-place finish in the race, just behind E. Lyme and Tolland.
Arends has one more regular season meet, Oct. 13 at NFA, before the ECC championship meet on Oct. 21 in Norwich and the Class MM state championship meet on Oct. 30 at Wickham Park.
Welch expects to see even better from the senior as the competition improves.
Lauren Brule placed 24th at the Wickham Invite while Julia Coyle came home in 39th to round out the top three for the Centaurs.
There was little Arends had to worry about in Groton. The senior had two of her teammates behind her and no one in front. The 1-2-3 finish guaranteed the Centaurs a 19-39 win over Fitch, 19-39.
Plainfield failed to have a full team and Woodstock was awarded a 15-50 win over the Panthers. The Centaurs are now 6-1 overall and 1-1 in Div. I of the ECC.
Arends made it look easy as she toured the Haley Farm State Park course in 16 minutes, 51 seconds. The course was only about 2.7 miles long for the girls.
It’s the second time in four regular season meets that the girls have run under the traditional 5K or 3.1 mile length.
Arends was almost two minutes better than Coyle who came across the line in 18:44, just a second better than another Centaur, Carah Bruce.
Sydney Lord was sixth and Leah Castle seventh overall for Woodstock in Groton.
Welch was happy with the performances of Coyle, Bruce and the others.
At Wickham, the Centaurs were 49 points behind the Vikings which may sound like a lot. However, in total time, Woodstock was only a minute off the Vikings’ pace.
Boys’ Cross-country
Ian Hoffman continues to excel in his first year in cross-country. The senior led the way for the boys’ cross-country team Oct. 9 at Wickham Park. He finished in 17 minutes, 46 seconds, good enough for 28th place individually. The boys finished 15th overall as a team in Manchester with Vince Bastura placing 51st and Christian Menounos 96th.
The philosophy was not to win at Wickham this weekend or in a couple of weeks in the Class MM state championship meet as much as to learn how to compete at those races. Woodstock is in a building year. But there will be no holding back even with a meet at NFA Oct. 13 looming. Hoffman finished third overall in Groton earlier in the week as the Centaurs downed Plainfield, 15-50, but lost a close one to Fitch, 27-29. Bastura placed fifth for Woodstock Academy (5-2, 0-2), Menounos was seventh and Seamus Lippy ninth.
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy
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Trick or Treat set
PUTNAM — The annual Putnam Trick or Treat AFTERNOON, sponsored by the Putnam Recreation Department, will be from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 30. Parents are invited to trick or treat from business to business in the downtown area from Union Square to the area of Jade Garden.
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Da’shon “DayDay” Gittens’ decision was an emotional one. The Putnam Science Academy Prep basketball player returned from an official visit to Florida International University the first weekend of October and really knew it was where he wanted to play college ball.
Over the next few days, he thought on it before informing his mom, Dawne, that he had cemented that decision.
“I almost started crying talking to her,” Gittens said. “This is a dream come true for me and something I’ve really been working for and wanting my whole life. She was proud. She always backs me up, like moms do.”
The Miami-based school started showing interest in the 6-foot, 4-inch ultra-athletic guard in September when the Mustangs’ first open gyms took place.
From there it was a quick process for Gittens to commit. He said his communication with the coaching staff was very consistent over the last few weeks, which showed him how badly they wanted him to be a part of their future.
The Panthers, coached by Jeremy Ballard, struggled to a 9-17 mark last year but rebuilt their roster through the transfer portal. FIU views Gittens as a major piece of their future; he said they talked to him about coming in and taking over the starting point guard role next fall. (Mohamed Sanogo, who played for PSA last year, is a freshman there this year as well.)
“When I went on my visit, it was really just like, ‘Wow,’” Gittens said. “The coaching staff and team, it was another family that I could connect with, with guys who I could look up to and help me accomplish my goals. I just really felt like I could relate to a lot of the guys and we had a close bond with them. And I didn’t even go to school there. That’s when I knew.”
Gittens, a native of Hartford who last year played on Woodstock Academy’s Prep team, said he realized this was a possibility during his sophomore year at Weaver High School.
That was when he broke onto the scene as a bonafide scoring threat and that if he worked at it, he could excel at a high level.
“That was when I started to get after it,” he said. “Once I really started doing that and working on my craft and taking it more seriously, I felt like college was something that could happen for me. I’m really excited about it. It was emotional too, knowing that this school fits me and was what I was looking for. The people at FIU are people I can look up to and I trust. There’s a lot of emotions that go on with that.”
PSA coach Tom Espinosa is looking forward to what Gittens can do this season, especially now that this decision is behind him.
He is intense and athletic, and if his jumper continues to evolve into a consistent weapon, look out.
“DayDay can be a real special player,” Espinosa said. “He reminds me a lot of Kyle Lofton (a former PSA star who has had a great career at St. Bonaventure). He’s a kid who has all the tools to be really, really good and I think he’s just scratching the surface right now.”
By Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
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Lunches coming
PUTNAM — TVCCA lunches will be starting at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 3 at the Municipal Complex. Senior citizens are urged to pick up a registration form at the library or recreation office or come to the Community Room at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 25 to register. Seniors will need to let TVCCA know a week in advance which meals they plan to attend; $3 donation. Stay tuned for senior activities before and after the lunches.
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